


Turn the Page

by obscure_obscurus



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - No Werewolves, Derek and his glasses, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-06 22:52:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11610618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obscure_obscurus/pseuds/obscure_obscurus
Summary: Derek Hale owns a bookstore. When times start to get tough he rents out part of the space to a young artist, Stiles Stilinski in order to save money and his business. At first, the two are hesitant around each other. Derek can’t stand that the artist is loud and clumsy. He uses the space to do exactly what he said but Derek didn’t expect that his art would cause him to be so distracted from his writing.Stiles was looking for space. Somewhere that could be a place to not only work but sell his art and the bookstore vacancy was just right for what he needed. His best friend Scott gave him a month. Scott knew Derek—not well but, he was familiar with him and figured that Stiles and his loud and clumsy ways would drive the quiet recluse crazy.





	1. Chapter 1

Running his fingers through his hair, Derek sighed. Balancing books wasn’t one of his favorite past times. In all honesty, he would have hired someone to do it **IF** he could afford it,  but right now—it was all eBooks and e-readers. A few people took the time to stop in and check out the books. Derek heard the same thing a million times, 'books take up so much space.' 

 

“Of course they did they were books.” Derek wanted to point out but, instead, he’d smile and shrug. 

 

He was an author, so of course, Derek loved books. What was there not to love? The way they smelled, felt and damn it Derek loved being able to turn the pages while he was reading a story and pressing a button just didn’t cut it. Not even close. Maybe he was a different breed. There was that part of him that hoped he wasn’t all that different. 

 

The buzzer attached to the door went off, and Derek emerged from the back stretching and adjusting his glasses. The sun had just gone down, and it looked a lot later out than it was. That was autumn for you though. He had the bad habit of not being overly talkative to customers unless they had questions. Part of it was shyness, and the other was just Derek. Erica would say he was grumpy and Boyd just nodded in agreement though he knew that in Derek’s case that wasn’t true. The man never stopped thinking and that caused him to be caught up inside his head more often than not. 

 

Spotting the familiar brunette hair Derek sighed. “Cora I thought you weren’t going to be in town until the weekend.” Of course seeing his younger sister was always a pleasure but, she’d been away at college and coming into town on a Wednesday well, that wasn’t a good sign typically.

 

Cora stepped out from behind one of the shelves and shot Derek a dry smile. “Well, my class for Friday is canceled, and Thursday is my off day. Laura asked if I could come home early if you really must know.”

 

Ever since their mother passed away, Laura had taken over the motherly role even if all of the Hale siblings were essentially adults. The family was always extremely close, and Laura didn’t want to see them drift apart when Talia passed. 

 

“Well good since you’re here you can cover the register. I was trying to balance the books, and you know how great I am with that.” Derek grumbled before he went back towards the back of the bookstore where he kept a tiny office that he used strictly to keep invoices and to balance books. His laptop wasn’t even kept in there since that was how he did most of his writing.

 

“I didn’t plan on staying for the whole evening Derek. I just wanted to stop by before I went home. It’s nice to come here before dealing with Laura.” Cora still walked behind the counter and took up residence on one of the stools that were placed near the register and began playing a game on her phone.

 

Derek who was standing in the doorway smiled and then walked back into the office. God the books sucked. He hated it, truly hated it.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

When Talia passed away the three Hale children were left with more than enough money. Each of them though had been doing things to make a name and life for themselves and all agreed that while they had the money and would use it as they saw fit, they would not stop taking care of themselves. Laura was a lawyer. Not some crazy high powered over paid lawyer but a public defender. She always said that she wanted to take care of those that weren’t able to help themselves and Laura Hale was making a name for herself.

 

Cora finished high school right before Talia passed away and after waiting a year, she finally went away to college. Between Derek and Laura, the two were paying for her schooling because they didn’t think that it was fair for her to have to use any of the money that was left for school when mom and dad had paid for their schooling. Of course, that just made Cora want to get perfect grades which were almost impossible, but she came close. The youngest Hale had decided early on that she was going to study law enforcement. It was a choice that both Derek and Laura were perfectly content with her making.

 

Derek was doing exactly what he wanted to do. He’d gone to college and gotten a degree in English Literature. Growing up his nose was always in a book, and his sisters always teased him about it. Talia, of course, supported her son as did his father. After college Derek could have done numerous things with the degree that he had obtained. Another two semesters and he could have been qualified to teach—not something he was interested in particularly. All Derek had ever talked about was being a writer. He wanted to write stories like Harper Lee, Tolkien, and Salinger. When he was 16, he swore he was going to get a book published. If Hinton could do it so could he—of course, that never happened, but Derek never gave up on the dream, and at 19 while he was in college he did manage to have a book of short stories published. After that, he had a short novel published, and that was the end for him. There was no way you could convince Derek that his life had any other meaning.

 

Once he graduated the bookstore in downtown Beacon Hills was going to close. The lady that had run it for years was retiring and moving to Florida—WHY? She lived in California for god’s sake, but she had family there Derek found out. After much begging and talking which he was horrible at Derek managed to convince her to sell him the store stock and all. He got a damn good deal, and it gave him a perfect place to write while he was working. No other job would give him that opportunity.

 

The first couple of years’ things were great. Derek managed to make an okay profit. His books did decently. Not great and not best sellers on the New York Times list by any stretch of the imagination but—it was something. The third year things started to taper off and now—sitting in the back trying to balance a book that had more red than black was next to impossible.

 

Flicking off the light, Derek closed the ledger and walked back into the front of the store. His stomach was churning, and he was half tempted to just close early. It wasn’t going to do any good to stay open any later right now. Thursday’s weren’t the best when it came to business, and well, he could save some cash on electricity. In the back of his mind, Derek was beginning to wonder if maybe closing the store was the only option—not that it was a good one.

 

“What’s bothering you?” Cora could see the worry on Derek’s face from a mile away. His brows were drawn together like they were trying to meet in the middle. It was a look that she didn’t like to see on him.

 

Chewing the inside of his cheek Derek was so busy thinking that it wasn’t until Cora snapped her fingers in front of his face that he realized she’d even said anything to him. “Huh?... Oh... Uh… Nothing I’m good.” Derek was lying like the worn out rug in the Children’s section of the store.

 

His little sister wasn’t buying it either. “Yeah okay. Well, I’m going back home. Laura said to come by for dinner once you close up.”

 

Derek started to protest but knew it was pointless.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Seriously Scott what do you think?”

 

The painting was abstract Stiles had to admit and Scott well, he wasn’t the most cultured when it came to art but if he could get him to just look at the damn thing once maybe just maybe he could con him into appreciating all the hard work he put into his paintings.

 

Scott tilted his head to the left, then the right and frowned. He didn’t want to tell Stiles that he had no clue what he was looking at but he thought it would be rude. Then again would it be worse to say you liked the flower and only to later find out you were looking at a bathtub filled with water and colored oil—it happened once okay?

 

“Well, um—it’s interesting.”

 

Stiles huffed shaking his head. “You have no idea what you’re looking at do you, Scott?”

 

Finally, Scott decided it was his chance, to be honest. “Not a clue. Sorry, buddy.”

 

Stiles just glared. It was all there plain as day—well, abstractly speaking. “It’s a wolf—in the preserve.”

 

“There aren’t wolves in that preserve Stiles.” Scott pointed out dryly before clearing his throat and looking at the painting once more. After Stiles told him what he was looking at Scott could see it plain as day. Maybe it was the suggestion that caused him to see the wolf, but he could see the wolf. 

 

Stiles sighed. “I’m aware of that. Haven’t been for years. **_BUT—_** it's a painting where I thought it would be good to pull from familiar things while painting something that I've never seen before except in pictures. That's why I've painted the preserve which we spent so much time in when we were kids and the wolf which I've only ever seen in pictures. ”

 

The knock on the door caused the two young men to quit talking; when it cracked open Isaac peaked his head inside. “Nice wolf Stiles.” He commented as he passed over the threshold and into the room landing in one of the chairs that sat in the corner.

 

Glancing at Scott with a pointed look Stiles then turned to Isaac and nodded. “At least someone can tell what I’m painting.”

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx…

 

The three boys all had very different lives since high school. Stiles had left Beacon Hills and traveled to New York to go to art school. After graduating, he came back home and began painting and sculpting. He’d sell his work on the side, and while he did manage to make money, his father still wasn’t happy with the idea of it not being a ‘real job.' Stiles was happy doing something that he loved. If he only could manage to pull off making it seem more legit to his father, then he’d be golden.

 

Scott went to college at UCLA. Vet school—after he had graduated he came back to Beacon Hills to work with Dr. Deaton. The two had always been close like family and Scott decided that he wanted to work there so that he could be close to his mother as well. It worked out pretty good honestly because Deaton had decided that he wanted to start taking more time off and gave Scott a bigger stake in the clinic so that he would stay.

 

Isaac went to community college. He never really knew exactly what he wanted to do so he continued working at the cemetery and took classes. After a couple of semesters, he realized that he liked being around older kids and ended up taking classes to become a teacher. He still blames Finstock since coach always seemed to have the most patience for him. Now sitting in the chair in Stiles’ dad’s basement Isaac was counting the days until he was officially done with school. 90 days—that’s it.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

When the clock struck eight, Derek flipped the lock and turned all the lights in the store off. If Laura wanted him there for dinner that meant she wanted him there by 8:15 no later. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was a motive behind this meeting—sometimes he would still get nervous like he was going to see his mom. **_(_** _he missed the days when dad was still alive, and he had some backup when it came to dealing with all those women_ ** _)_**

 

Grabbing his jacket and keys Derek picked up his laptop case and headed out of the bookstore. He had a lot of thinking to do regarding the future of the place and sitting through a dinner with his sister who was damn good at cross examination wasn’t something he was looking forward to.

 

The drive to Laura’s always seemed to take longer now that he didn’t have his parents to look forward to seeing. It was almost like he wanted to avoid being there. 

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“I don’t know Laura he came out of the back and just something was on his mind. I could tell.” Cora was always worried about Derek even though she was the youngest and he would always contend that it was his job to worry.

 

“Cora I’m sure that everything is fine. If something’s wrong, he’ll tell us.” Laura sounded confident, but the look on Cora’s face spoke volumes.

 

“Hi I’m Cora Hale, and we’re talking about our brother Derek who would go days without speaking, and I’m sure still does at times. Do you even know him?”

 

Laura merely huffed and handed her younger sister plates and napkins to set the table. “Derek should be here any minute. Set the table, Cora.”

 

Okay, now Laura was worried. Deep down she knew that Derek wouldn’t say something if he had a problem. He liked to try and take care of everything himself, and that wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

 

The ding from the timer interrupted Laura’s thoughts and shaking her head she reached into the oven to pull out the casserole that she baked. Just as it was placed on the stove to cool for a moment, there was a knock at the door, and Cora darted to answer it.

 

“Hey, you two.” Derek greeted Cora first and then Laura who was peeking her head around the corner from the kitchen. “Need some help in there Laura?”

 

Normally he sucked at a lot of things but, Talia had taught him his way around a kitchen. That was one thing that made Derek proud.

 

Wrinkling her nose in thought, Laura smiled. “Yeah, why don’t you come help me finish the last of this stuff. I’ve got to finish the rolls and then take everything to the table.”

 

Derek glanced at Cora who just shrugged. “I’m going to work on my report call me when it’s time to eat—unless it’s after ten.”

 

Snorting Derek put his laptop down on the couch and walked into the kitchen where Laura was standing with already finished rolls and a casserole on the counter. Confused Derek looked over his shoulder to call for Cora but before he could say anything Laura’s hand was on his shoulder.

 

“Cora said something’s bothering you. Said it was all over your face today. Care to tell me what’s going on?” She was asking which was better than demanding Derek thought, but if he refused to talk to her he knew it would come to that.

 

Sighing Derek walked towards the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and took a large gulp from it. “Just was working on the books at the store today. You know how it is. Bookstores aren't the most viable business right now considering.”

 

Laura was silent for a moment before she put the rolls into a basket and covered them up. “Well, have you considered perhaps renting out part of the space. The store is huge—bigger than it needs to be, and if you rent out part of the space, it could save you money.”

 

Now—that—was one thing that Derek had not considered. But, what the hell was he going to do rent it out to some coffee shop and become **_THAT_ _GUY._** He didn’t want to be _**THAT GUY**_. God, he’d tried for so long not to be 'that guy' even thinking about it was making his skin crawl, not to mention his head spin. 

 

“Like what Laura? I’m not going to be the person that has a coffee shop in their bookstore. I refuse.”

 

The sound of disgust in her brother’s voice made Laura laugh. She hadn’t even considered that since she already knew full well Derek’s stance on the whole coffee shop idea. 

 

“Art—books and art go hand in hand, and I think that it would be a great idea.”

 

Derek thought for a moment, and he couldn’t come up with a reason to say ‘No’ right away though he didn’t know of any artists in Beacon Hills that were looking for a place to display work. 

 

That would be a challenge. But, having a sister like Laura with lots of connections Derek figured it wouldn’t be hard to find someone. “Where the heck do you one, come up with these ideas and two, how do you get me to consider them?”

 

“It’s a gift.” Laura teased grabbing the rolls and butter. “Grab the casserole please.” It was more like an order even with the please added on the end. “Cora get down here so we can eat before we all waste away to nothing.” Glancing over her shoulder, Laura paused for a moment. “You know the sheriff’s son is an artist. Maybe he’s looking for a place to work, display his stuff—you know what I mean?”

 

Derek stopped in his tracks because knowing Laura that could have meant so many different things. “Yeah okay well, don’t know the kid so— “

 

“You know Scott McCall right?” Cora asked turning the corner. She had overheard part of the conversation.

 

Okay so it was national gang up on your brother day, and Derek just happened to be the only brother in the family. “Yeah I know him—barely but I know him.”

 

“He’s a friend of Scott’s. Not a bad guy—least that’s what I heard.” Cora didn’t sound all that convinced though and Derek well; he definitely would have to talk with him before agreeing to anything.

 

“Ah, that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Like I said—don’t know the guy that well.” Derek set the dish on the table and took his seat.

 

The three ate dinner in relative silence. Derek too busy trying mull over what Laura had suggested and Laura too busy trying to figure out how to help her brother without him knowing too much. Cora was just thinking about how on earth she’d managed to get two of the most stubborn siblings on the planet.

 

After dinner, she waltzed up to her room and dialed Scott’s number. The two weren’t close, but they spoke on occasion after high school. The phone rang a few times before going to voicemail. Cora huffed but decided to leave a message. “Hey, Scott it’s Cora Hale. I’m in town for the weekend, and I was just wondering—wait I’m not asking you on a date first. Is Stiles still doing the whole art thing? My brother’s bookstore is going to be leasing some of the space out, and he doesn’t want to do the whole coffee shop thing, and Laura thought art was a good idea. 

 

"Anyways—I was kinda wondering if he would be interested in leasing some space. Gimme a call would ya?” Hanging up the phone, Cora realized that she had done a fine job of rambling and making very little sense. 

 

Derek had no idea Cora had made the phone call, and after he had finished helping Laura with the dishes, he grabbed his laptop and keys. “Hey, I’m heading home. I have to get up early in the morning to open the store, and well, I’m tired.”

 

Laura hugged her brother and rested her hand on his cheek. It was the same gesture that his mother always used with him, and it made Derek feel oddly young again. “Everything will work out Derek, don't worry too much about.”

 

Don’t worry—she said not to worry. Easier said than done. Derek nodded and walked out the door. It was going to be a sleepless night but, that was one thing that he could handle. Losing the store—all those thoughts he couldn’t deal with that.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

Cora’s phone rang early the next morning. Anyone that knew her knew she wasn’t a morning person. None of the Hale’s were. Not until they all consumed at least three cups of coffee and had over an hour of near silence to gather themselves. So, being jerked from sleep by her phone was not the best way to wake her up. Normally Cora shut her phone off, but last night she’d left it on in case Scott called back. Damn her for falling asleep.

 

“H… he… hello.” It took a couple of tries before she could get the word out, but eventually, she managed. “Someone better be dying.” It wasn’t the most cordial greeting, but it was all she could muster given her current situation. 

 

Scott immediately felt guilty for waking the sleeping woman. He had been at the clinic on an emergency call the night before and afterward, came home and passed out. He hadn’t even listened to the message from Cora until this morning. “Cora I’m so sorry I woke you up. No one’s dying but I just got your message.”

 

Cora sat up in bed with a yawn and was relieved to smell the coffee that was still sitting in the pot. It wasn’t fresh, but it would do until new stuff was brewed. “Yeah yeah, that was last night. Not that anything’s changed except for the fact that I was sleeping. So—is he?” Right to the point as always.

 

Chuckling Scott ran his hand over his neck. He had remembered Stiles mentioning something about finding a place for his art but, it was in passing, and then he’d never said anything about it again. Of course, Scott wasn’t normally the one that Stiles spoke to about the art stuff. That was usually Isaac since Isaac had more of an eye for that kind of thing. “Is he…? Oh is he looking for something? You know I’m not sure I mean he said something about it in passing but, Isaac would know more or I could just ask him and have him stop by the bookstore to talk to Derek.”

 

Cora nearly choked on her coffee. “No no don’t have him do that. Derek hasn’t even decided that he wants to do this yet. I’m just trying to be— “

 

“Meddling.” Scott finished the sentence for her with a chuckle. “I’ll bring it up to Stiles and once you find out what’s going on with Derek text me that way I don’t wake you up.”

 

That wasn’t the word Cora was going to use. Proactive was the word but—fine she wasn’t going to argue with McCall right now. Instead, she just grumbled something akin to okay into the phone and hung up.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

Derek hated when the store felt empty and lately it always felt that way. Oh, there was stock but for some reason there just seemed to be fewer customers. It drove him insane. He’d spent the night tossing and turning, rolling around the idea that Laura had planted in his head about renting out some of the space and now that he was standing in the middle of the shelves and looking he could rearrange things to make room for someone else. It wasn’t ideal; Derek had always been a bit of a loner, and that was something that would never change.

 

Broken out of his reverie when the phone rang Derek walked to the counter to answer. “Turn The Page” Okay yeah so he named the store after a Bob Seger song that his dad liked sue him—

 

The voice on the other end was completely unfamiliar and sounded panicked. “Yeah, so I have a report due in three weeks. I’ve looked everywhere for this specific book. The library three towns over even and no one has it. NO ONE!” Isaac was sure this was going to be a bust. The teacher wanted them to find a first edition copy of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and compare it to a more recent version to see if there were updates. Some books periodically did update language and so forth to make them more acceptable, and that was the book they decided on for this year. 

 

He found out later that there were only two copies in the library and that was it.

 

“Okay wait I don’t even know what book you’re talking about.”

 

Isaac huffed into the phone. “It’s To Kill a Mockingbird—first edition.” 

 

Derek sighed because that was a hard book to get your hands on. Especially the early copies. He, himself had one but, it was his book. It wasn’t like he was just going to let some stranger ‘borrow’ one of his prized possessions. “When is it going to be back in the library?”

 

“Not until the day _AFTER_ my report is due.”

 

Back to sounding frantic now. Derek took a deep breath. “Look—I’ve got a copy. It’s mine. You can’t have it, and you can’t leave here with it. _**BUT,**_ I’ll let you look at it for as long as you need to as long as you promise to be careful.”

 

Derek could hear what sounded like the phone hitting the floor and the Isaac rushing to grab it again. “Okay—yeah yeah that’s great. Listen, thanks so much. I appreciate this. I’ve only got 89 more days left until I’m done with college and yeah. Can I stop by today?”

 

“Yeah, that’s fine. Who am I supposed to be waiting for?”

 

“Isaac—Isaac Lahey.”

 

Derek hung the phone up, and the sent Cora a text.

 

**[msg: cora]** do me a favor. run to the loft—or drive and get my copy of to kill a mockingbird and VERY carefully bring it here.

**[msg: cora]** I'll buy you lunch.

 

Derek figured if anything the lunch would win Cora over.

 

**[msg: derek]** you’re lucky I'm hungry. be there in fifteen.

 

**[msg: cora]** did I forget to mention carefully? be careful. 

 

Putting his phone back on the counter, Derek went back to what he had already been doing. Looking over the store trying to imagine how he should move around the shelves to make room for an artist to have some semblance of a gallery wasn't an easy thing to do for him.

 

The small nook to the right of the register Derek decided he was going to turn into the children’s area. That way all of their books would be in one spot, and when he had reading time for them, it would be easier to find. The left-hand side would have each section labeled and organized with the nook moved towards the front of the store. It would probably have to be smaller because the area for the gallery would be the offshoot where Derek kept the reference section now. It was the least used area, but it was also actually substantial, and the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.

 

His back room was virtually empty and some of the books that were out front that had been on the shelves for a long time Derek could move to the back for a while. It would give him a chance to start rotating things to give the place a fresh look once in awhile. Something that Laura had been telling him to do for a long time.

 

The buzzer above the door went off, and Derek glanced over and smiled at Cora. “Thanks” Derek smiled as he reached for the book that she held out towards him. “I wouldn’t have asked but, some frantic college kid called looking for one of these so I told him he could come here and use this book but wasn’t allowed to leave with it.”

 

Cora raised a brow but shrugged. “Who knew you had a heart when it came to anyone but your family Der-bear.”

 

Derek rolled his eyes and grabbed a folder that had the selection of carry-out menus in it that he frequented. “Take your pick, and I’ll pay.” Just then the door opened again, and the two glanced at the tall darker haired boy standing there.

 

“Isaac?” Cora narrowed her brow for a moment. “Scott was just talking about you this morning.”

 

Isaac smiled not expecting to see Cora and Derek well he was just confused. “Wait, you two know each other?”

 

“Yeah Derek, we went to school together. I’ve known him as long as Scott.” Cora retorted before tossing a Thai menu at him. “Pad Thai with chicken hot please.”

 

Derek nodded his head and went to grab the phone but paused when his eyes landed on the book. “Hey here—just be careful with it.”

 

Eyes lighting up Isaac took the book and a seat in the nook. “Thank you so much you have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

 

Derek gave some noncommittal noise and then picked up the phone. Before he could dial Cora spoke up. “Isaac, we’re getting lunch did you eat yet?”

 

Isaac shook his head no but didn’t make an attempt to look at the menu either. Cora took the paper from Derek’s hands and gave it to the other man and waited. “Would you tell me what you want so we can order—I’m starving.”

 

Glancing at Cora, Isaac shook his head. “Cora you know that I can’t.”

 

“No one said anything about that now what do you want.”

 

Derek just ignored the interaction not wanting to comment and embarrass the younger guy. It was clear that there was more going on that he didn’t know.

 

“Just whatever you’re getting is fine.” Isaac shrugged. “Just not too spicy.”

 

Cora turned to Derek and smiled. “Same as me just mild please.”

 

“Got it. I’m going to go pick it up. I’ll be right back. Don’t let the place burn down Cora.” Derek walked into the back and grabbed his jacket and the left through the front door. He decided that he’d just order there and wait to bring the carry out back.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Isaac you don’t have to give me such a hard time about trying to help you out.” Cora snapped while his eyes were glued to the pages.

 

Looking up Isaac just smirked. “Never said I was giving you a hard time. So—is this the place? Scott told me you called and asked him about Stiles and a gallery.”

 

Cora sighed and shrugged. “Yeah but I don’t even know what Derek’s going to do. He hasn’t said anything to me about it, and I’m not going to jump to any conclusions.”

 

Isaac took a good look around the place. “I could see this working if he had people to help him move things around. It’s nice in here. No idea why I haven’t been here sooner.”

 

“Because I avoided it like the plague when we were kids. No one wants to hang around her big brother.” Cora and Isaac had been friends when they were in school, and while they never came around her family, there was always a reason for that in her mind. 

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Oh, I’m not that bad,” Derek stated walking through the door with his arms full of Thai food. 

“Cora, would you help me with this?” He just happened to overhear the last bit of the conversation and piped in with a retort. It was clear that he had no idea what they were talking about before which meant that the two remained calm. 

 

Isaac and Cora both got up and grabbed bags from Derek. Isaac followed Cora into the back of the store and set them on the counter. “So, Derek did you give any thought to what we were talking about last night?” Cora couldn’t help but ask as she walked back towards the front with one of the take out containers and chopsticks in her hands.

 

A redheaded woman had walked in and was asking about hosting a children’s reading hour for a new book that she’d written, and Derek was talking to her. He hadn’t heard a word his sister said. “Um—we do have reading times for kids already. I’m in the process of doing a few things around here. So, if you want to schedule something in a couple of weeks I think that it would be great.”

 

Cora was doing what she hated… eavesdropping. He was planning on moving things around. 

Derek was going to rent out some space to someone. This was great. It would help him out so much.

 

Isaac’s eyes moved from Derek to Cora and back again before he went back to looking through the pages. “Cora you know if you were any more obvious it would be depressing. You used to be pretty good at hiding what you were doing, but now it’s so clear that you’re spying on your brother. I already texted Stiles and told him to come over here.”

 

Cora whipped around and choked on her food. “You what?!?!? Isaac, Derek can’t know that I 

said anything to you or—anyone.”

 

Scoffing Isaac shook his head. “Some people are a little better at undercover than you are Cora.”

 

“Yeah and Stiles is not one of them.” She stated as a reminder to how obvious he had always been.

 

And she had a fair point. Isaac cringed at the thought but went back to his book and then decided to take a break to grab something to eat.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

Finally, a few customers in and Derek had made a couple of sales which he was happy about and booked someone for one of the children’s hours. Today was a lot busier than he had expected. After 2 pm Derek finally got to eat some of his Thai food even though it was cold.

 

“Did you find everything you needed in the book?” Derek asked Isaac who was still sitting there. Cora had left a couple of hours before.

 

Isaac glanced up and nodded. “Yeah, thanks again man — “

 

Derek smiled and went back to eating finally able to open his laptop for the first time that day. 

 

He was just about to start typing again when the door opened and in walked this skinny guy. Derek glanced up and smiled. “If you need help finding anything just let me know.”

Probably should have said hi but damn he had a couple of things that he needed to write down. Which was Derek’s habit when he thought of things. The guy had notes everywhere. Paper laying around with weird little things jotted down on them.

 

Isaac took a moment to look up from his work. His eyes met Stiles, and he didn’t say anything. Stiles just walked around the bookstore. He walked through the reference section, the travel, fiction, nonfiction, true crime and even the children’s section and at that Derek raised a brow. Okay, that was a little weird.

 

After about thirty minutes he walked up to the counter with a book about sculpting and painting. “Hey which of these two do you think is better?”

 

Derek looked up and stood to look at the two books. Shaking his head, he looked at the guy that questioned him. “Couldn’t tell you. I just own this place and write. Don’t paint or sculpt so haven’t got the foggiest.”

 

Stiles flipped through each book and handed him the sculpting book. “This painting book is good for beginners but this—“ motioning towards the other book. “That book is great. I’ll take it.”

 

“Okay—well, if you don’t mind me asking what do you need a book about sculpting for if you already know about it.”

 

“Because you can never stop learning. If you quit trying to learn what good are you? Oh, and I like this one sculpture, and I want to see if I can pull something off similar.” Stiles flipped through the pages and showed Derek what he was referring to.

 

“Nice,” Derek commented, and Isaac stood up and handed Derek his book.

 

“Thanks for letting me sit here all afternoon and use your book. I owe you.” Isaac turned to shove his other books in his bags.

 

“No problem. Just—don’t go running around telling anyone I did something nice for you.” He was teasing, but in a way, he wasn’t. Derek didn’t want people sitting around all day and not buying things.

 

“I won’t don’t worry. Oh, thanks for lunch and tell Cora I said I'll talk to her later.” 

 

Isaac was walking out of Turn the Page when Stiles called after him. “Isaac would you wait a second I’m just paying for my book.”

 

Freezing in place Isaac waited for Stiles to finish paying and come running out of the store. “Real slick Stiles. There was a reason I wasn’t talking to you. Didn’t want him to know you were there checking the place out. But, what did you think?”

 

Shifting his hand from side to side Stiles shrugged. “Could use some work.”

 

“Yeah like about five other guys to help him move a ton of books around. Thanks for volunteering.”

 

Mouth gaping Stiles closed then opened his mouth again. “I never said—“ But he stopped talking because the truth was that he liked the way the store was set up and he would help move things around if someone asked.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Yes, Laura okay you win.” Derek grumps into the phone. “I looked at the store today, and I think I came up with a good idea. Just need about a month to move things around. There’s no way I can do any of it quick.”

 

Cora was standing next to Laura and listening in because that’s what nosey little sisters did. 

“Der-bear what if I told you that I could get a few people to help? Plus, me and Laura?”

 

“No one said anything about helping. **SO,** don’t count on me.” Laura teased, but Derek knew that she would be there. The only reason was to make sure that Derek didn't ruin anything. 

 

“Fine—I’ll close the store this weekend for remodeling and if you can get people that would be great. Then I can put the space up for rent.” Derek yawned. His couch was just too comfortable, and Netflix was calling his name. It had been a long time since he’d done anything but write until he passed out, so this was going to be a good night.

 

“Okay I’ll round up the troops, and we’ll be there Saturday.”

 

Derek grumbled _'okay sounds good'_ into the phone and hung up. He had zero interest in discussing this further that evening.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Derek if you expect me to come and help you move things around with all of Cora’s friends you’re going to owe me a beer and dinner.” Boyd was just leaving the gym and heading to work. It was hard to believe that he was an accountant.

 

Derek realized that he could have used an accountant on numerous occasions, but he knew better than to ask friends to do favors or have friends do business things for you. Nine times out of ten it ended badly so even when Boyd offered to help Derek with the books for the store he declined and stated that he would have another accountant go over them because it put him in an awkward position.

 

“Dinner and beer. Are we dating now?” Derek teased. “Fine, you got it. But, since you just asked for beer obviously you don’t want anything fancy.”

 

“I think Erica would have an issue with us dating Derek.” Boyd was laughing into the phone. 

 

“Very very true.” Derek nodded and hung up the phone. He also made a notice that Turn the Page would be closed on Saturday and Sunday for remodeling. It was nothing fancy, and honestly, Derek hoped that the few regular customers that he did have didn’t end up expecting too much. Hell Derek hoped he didn’t expect too much.

 

As Friday night rolled around, he started to sort through the shelves of books, take some of them off and put them in crates so that they could be moved to the back. It was about 7 pm when the buzzer on the door went off, and Derek stepped out from where the reference section was. The same guy from the previous day was standing there. The man that bought the book about sculpting-- that was how Derek remembered him had walked into the store. His eyes moved around before they came to rest on Derek.

 

“Did you need something?” Walking towards the register, Derek realized that he was probably pretty dusty. Wiping his hands on the front of his jeans he smiled.

 

“Um—I’m supposed to come here tomorrow to help move things around, and I figured that I’d stop by tonight and see if you needed help with anything.”

 

Derek paused tilting his head to the side for a moment. “Uh—yeah sure. Just taking some of the books off the shelves so that I can rotate stock eventually.”

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

Stiles was going back to Turn the Page, and he didn’t know why. Yeah, he told himself it was because he wanted to see if the guy, Derek needed some help since Stiles himself would be there the next day. Deep down there was that part of him that knew he wasn’t going for entirely innocent purposes. 

 

Walking in was a hell of a lot harder than he expected. Maybe because he was going to the store _ALONE—_ with distractingly moody, attractive, totally a hipster even if he refuses to partake in a coffee shop guy. Yeah, this was going to end badly.

 

He walked out from that front area and damn it does he have a cobweb in his hair? Yeah yeah, he does. Great—just great. Stiles inner monolog was starting to get away from him, and in many ways, he was starting to wonder if some of it was being said out loud. 

 

“Rotating stock is a good idea. Keeps things fresh. Do you know that you have a cobweb in your hair?”

 

Reaching up Stiles ran his fingers through Derek’s hair. It was because he needed to get the cobweb out and if someone says otherwise, they’re lying. _**BUT**_ jesus Derek’s hair was soft. How the heck did he manage that?

 

Derek stood there stunned unsure of what to say or do. Quickly he turned around and walked back over to the reference area and picked up the crate to carry to the back room and grab another empty one.

 

“I’m just—I’ll be in the reference section taking stuff off the shelves,” Derek stated quickly walking past Mr. Touchy. 

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Scott I ran my fingers through his hair like an idiot? Who the hell does that?” Stiles was on the phone walking home after helping Derek move books off of some of the shelves. The two talked little but got a lot done and before Stiles left he said he’d see him in the morning and Derek nodded and waved goodbye.

 

Scott could barely contain his laughter and snorted into the phone. “What did you wait—do I want to know why you were running your fingers through his hair.?” Leave it to Stiles to make everything awkward in like less than five seconds.

 

“He had cobwebs in his hair, and it was just a reaction. I just reached up and went to brush them out. I wasn’t coming on to him.” Desperate? Maybe but come on he was Stiles Stilinski, and he would have a better pick up than that.

 

“Yeah, sure Stiles—I’ve seen Derek remember. If guys did it for me.” Scott was teasing him now, but there was some truth to what he was saying. “Oh, Cora said to be back at the store about nine in the morning. Think you can swing that?”

 

“I’ll be there with bells on—and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.” Stiles knew Cora needed coffee almost as much as air in the morning and he was sure that the rest of the Hale clan was the same way.

 

Scott grunted in agreement. “I think everyone’s bringing coffee and that’s probably the smartest move to make. But, listen I’ll talk to you in the morning. Allison and I have a date and after that— “

 

Pulling the phone from his ear, Stiles yelled out. “I don’t want to know.” 

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXxxx... 

 

The night was at least decent, and Stiles couldn’t complain. He loved walking and did it if he could. Ever since his Jeep bit the big one and there was no fixing it Stiles refused to buy a new car. If he needed to go somewhere far he would beg someone else for a ride—thankfully that was rare. A lot of times it was walking that gave him a lot of inspiration for paintings. The night sky, the colors that lights bathed everything in around him. Derek’s eyes—because jesus those were beautiful and why in the hell was he thinking about those? Oh because of the color yeah that’s it—the color.

 

Losing himself in thought, Stiles continued his walk home and didn’t notice when a car pulled up next to him. He didn’t realize that the person started to talk until they said his name and sounded frustrated.

 

“Stiles get in the car.”

 

Glancing over he jumped and stepped off the curb almost falling into the road. “Dad I didn’t hear you.” He jogged over to the passenger side of his dad’s cruiser and closed the door behind him.

 

“Obviously—why are you out walking right now? Aren’t you usually home in the basement painting.?” John searched his son’s face to make sure that he hadn’t been out drinking. Oh, he was old enough and wasn’t driving, so that was good, but still, John didn’t like the idea of Stiles drinking.

 

“Just was out helping someone with a few things. Oh, and tomorrow—I’ll be out most of the day so that you know. Leaving before nine.”

 

John nodded as he pulled into the driveway and the two each exited their side of the car. “Pizza for dinner?” John suggested

 

Stiles shrugged. “Just watch the meat dad. You know you shouldn’t be eating all that stuff.” Which was true but, Stiles knew that his father didn’t listen to him half the time any ways.

 

After dinner, Stiles disappeared into the basement for a while to paint but found that he was exhausted and instead opted for bed. If he was going to spend the weekend helping some virtual stranger redecorate his bookstore with the feeble hope that he’d be able to rent the space that was made for his art Stiles knew he was going to need his sleep.

 

           ...xxxXXXXXXxxx...

 

“Boyd he ran his fingers through my hair. Said I had a cobweb but—I never saw it.” Derek was a little mortified. Of course, someone touching him without warning was normally a no no in Derek’s book.

 

Boyd sounded amused though. “Well, if he said you had a cobweb in your hair you probably did. Did he try anything else?”

 

Derek thought for a moment. “Um—no we just moved books.” Which was true. Derek was his usual quiet self but, that wasn’t new.

 

“Then see I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” Erica was chuckling in the background and Derek grumbled.

 

“The fact that you two find this funny is the worst part.” Derek snapped before hanging up the phone.

 

A few minutes after he put his phone down he got a text.

 

**[msg: boyd]** it’s not funny. well, it is but—and see you in the morning with coffee.

Derek read the message, and even the promise of coffee did little to lessen to blow of his friends laughing at him. Instead of dwelling on it too much Derek stripped off his clothes and showered then headed to bed. The last thing he wanted to do was show up late when people were coming to help him move things around at his bookstore.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That damn alarm buzzed louder than Derek expected it too. The thing was he tried once to turn it down, and he slept until almost noon. The bookstore didn’t open that day and yeah it sucked. So, every morning Derek woke up to a blaring alarm that jerked him out of sleep so violently he sometimes felt like he was still asleep even after his shower. It was a disarming feeling. Saturday morning was no different. Well, almost no different than usual, except that along with the alarm, he had his sisters pounding on his loft door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** the remodel is finally coming to a close and Derek made it through without going insane. Clearly, though his sisters think that it would be best for him to rent the space to the sheriff’s son. Derek isn’t so sure.**

That damn alarm buzzed louder than Derek expected it too. The thing was he tried once to turn it down, and he slept until almost noon. The bookstore didn’t open that day and yeah it sucked. So, every morning Derek woke up to a blaring alarm that jerked him out of sleep so violently he sometimes felt like he was still asleep even after his shower. It was a disarming feeling. Saturday morning was no different. Well, almost no different than usual, except that along with the alarm, he had his sisters pounding on his loft door.

“Seriously I said I would be there to open the place, you guys,” Derek grumbled as he opened the door. Waking up like this was not a good way for him to start his morning. Not in the least.

“Good morning sunshine. I know you said that, but I figured that it was in everyone’s best interest if you at least had some caffeine in your system before you showed up so—I come bearing gifts.” Laura offered her best smile as she shoved a large cup of coffee towards Derek.  
He took the cup and just glared at her for a moment.

“Oh come on Derek there’s no way you can be angry with me when I show up with your coffee made just the way you like it. And—“ Starting to whisper Laura leans in towards Derek’s ear. “I know you never put sugar in it when you’re around people because guys don’t do that kind of stuff but, it’s got one and a half sugars. I said it was mine when they asked for the name.”

Okay, now he couldn’t be mad. Who could? Laura knew how Derek liked his coffee and yes he’d gotten used to drinking coffee with no sugar, but it wasn’t something that he liked doing. It was only tolerable. At the bookstore, Derek had taken the time to hide sugar in the back, so no one ever saw it. Yeah, he was like that. “Thanks, Laura you are the best.”

“I know.” Plopping on the couch, she smiled quite pleased with herself. “Now take a shower because if you show up like that, you’ll scare away everyone that’s coming to help.”

“I take back everything I just said,” Derek grumbled putting the coffee on the table after taking one more long swig from the cup. He disappeared into the bathroom and took a shower that was probably tied for the record of the quickest shower in history.

Glancing at Laura Derek rolled his eyes when he saw that she had started to doze off on his couch. Leave it to her to fall back to sleep after making sure that he was up and moving.

            ...oooOOOOOOooo…

“If we don’t show up does that make us jerks?” Stiles was having second thoughts after the whole cobweb incident.

Isaac just looked at him confused for a moment before shaking his head with a huff. “Not only does it make you a jerk, but it makes you a moron who will have a pissed off Cora coming after you. I don't think that’s a good idea.”

Stiles relented and got dressed because Cora angry was scary and he didn’t want her coming after him either. In truth, he was terrified at the thought of her coming after him.

One thing was that Stiles was grateful Isaac showed up and didn’t make him walk to the bookstore. He had intended to stop and bring coffee and pastries but walking all that way just didn’t seem like a good idea. “Can we stop at the bakery to grab some pastries and coffee? I didn’t want to walk with all that in my hands.”

           ...xxxXXXXXXxxx…

Isaac nodded his head and pulled into Finstock’s Bakery. How Bobby Finstock kept his mother’s bakery running after she passed away was a mystery. He was an okay teacher, entertaining, to say the least. Stiles would be lying if he said he didn’t make a killer Danish. Once he picked up the order, he’d already phoned in Stiles walked back out to the car and handed Isaac a tea.

“Dude here I know you hate coffee, and I know you don’t like pastries either so I got you a stupid donut.”

Smiling Isaac took the cup and bag and started driving towards the bookstore again. His phone rang, and it was Scott. Stiles answered for him. “Isaac’s phone he’s driving Miss Daisy… Wait… that makes me Miss Daisy.”

“You said it first.” Scott snorted. “Really are you guys almost here? Everyone else is waiting.”

Stiles sighed and nodded before realizing that Scott couldn’t see him. “Yeah yeah and by everyone who is that?”

“Cora, Laura, Derek, Boyd, Erica and me.” Scott rattled off the names without taking a breath.

“Good, we should be able to get everything done today,” Stiles muttered under his breath.

“Yeah as long as you don’t start petting Derek again,” Scott stated with complete amusement in his voice.

  
Isaac’s eyebrows shot up disappearing under his mop of curls. Shaking his head, he pulled into a parking spot behind Turn the Page. “I don’t think I want to know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m hanging up now Scott. Thanks for being such a good friend.” Stiles then clicked the phone shut and glanced at Isaac who was still assessing whether he wanted to ask what that was all about or not. Stiles held up his hands. “I didn’t pet him he had a cobweb in his hair.”

“Right… cobweb.” Isaac muttered opening the door and getting out of the car.

             ...oooOOOOOOooo…

How the hell was he going to deal with this all day? Number one Derek wasn’t huge on people. Children’s reading hour typically wiped him out to the point that he would beg Erica to watch the store for the rest of the afternoon so that he could go home and attempt to write in peace. It usually worked thank goodness. Derek always wondered if it was because the blonde liked the quiet or if she just felt sorry for Derek. She would never give him a straight answer about it when he asked, so Derek eventually quit asking.

Laura would once in a while come in and work a few hours. Most of the time it was when she needed to borrow his reference section though. Derek wasn’t an idiot, and he knew exactly what his sister was doing. Cora was the same way. ONLY when they needed to use his books. Derek felt totally objectified. Not that he would ever turn down the help or tell them that they couldn’t use the books. Although sometimes he wanted to remind them that he wasn’t a library he owned a bookstore.

Now, this was his last ditch effort to save things. Derek didn’t want to get a nine to five job. Something that would keep him from being able to work on his writing while still ‘working.' Laura seemed to think that this would work and Derek well, he just hoped that she was right.  
He’d fallen silent as everyone got to work taking books off the shelves and carefully placing them in a different area. Derek himself was hard at work doing the same. Scott, Isaac, Stiles, and Cora all stuck to themselves moving books and shelves wherever Cora directed them. Boyd and Erica worked together, which left Derek and Laura paired up. It only took a couple of hours, and the shelves along the walls were completely cleaned. Laura couldn’t help but smile when Derek started to pull the shelves away. He’d never moved them and honestly was a little scared to see how the walls behind the shelves looked.

“Hey, Der-bear” The name was out of Laura’s mouth before she even thought about everyone in the room.

Derek immediately bristled at it but turned to look at Laura without a word. His eyebrow raised up his forehead.

“I was thinking how about we paint the walls since well—we can finally see them. Get rid of that stale smell.” Laura was leaning against the counter while Erica was lounging in one of the chairs. Cora was standing by Stiles and Scott who tried not to laugh at Derek’s nickname. The two were quickly elbowed in the ribs by Cora when they snorted.

“Sure probably wouldn’t hurt,” Derek commented with a shrug. “I should clean the walls. Would you go get the paint— “

Laura huffed but knew that he was going to volunteer her anyways. “I’ll get lunch too while I’m out for everyone. Stiles, you come with me.”

Derek froze and looked at her for a moment but then went back to grab a towel to dust the walls off before they got back to paint.

Stiles had choked before he pushed himself away from the shelf the three of them had been leaning on to leave with Laura. “Any color requests?” He asked over his shoulder glancing at Derek.

Derek didn’t answer, and Isaac looked around the store and smiled. “Something warm.”

Cora rolled her eyes. “You’re going to school to teach not for interior design.”

But, Isaac, Cora, and Scott quickly fell into a pattern of dusting shelves and making sure that they were dust and cobweb free. Isaac couldn’t believe how many cobwebs there were there. Maybe Stiles had been telling the truth.

Derek decided that once he was done wiping down the walls with Boyd and Erica, he was taking a break. Cora and her friends had already called it quits for awhile and took a seat on the floor in the corner that was going to be the gallery. It was unbelievable to Derek how empty the store looked, and it was funny how many people walked by and looked inside and were very confused by the sight.

“Derek do you think that I can do a rain check on the dinner and beer thing? Erica wanted to go see a movie tonight, so we were going to do that.” Boyd didn’t think it would be a big deal, but he didn’t want to wait until the last minute to bring it up either.

Shaking his head, Derek shrugged. “Nah it’s fine. I’ll probably just end up going to bed anyway. Have to be back here early again so I can finish putting everything back together.” Derek didn’t expect everyone to come back again tomorrow. As a matter of fact, he had no intentions of even asking.

“Um—I plan on being here in the morning.” Isaac piped in.

“Same” Scott replied.

Boyd and Erica both nodded. “Derek we aren’t going to stand you up.”

Cora snorted. “Well then guess I can sleep in.”

Scott glanced over at her and elbowed her ribs. “I’ll drag you out of bed if you even think about it.”

“You and whose army McCall?”

Derek just sat there, eyebrows raised as Laura and Stiles walked back in arms full of paint, supplies, and food. He was so busy listening to Scott and Cora’s interaction that he almost didn’t get up to help them. It wasn’t until Boyd and Isaac jumped up that Derek even realized that they had walked in. “Sorry, you two. I got busy listening to Cora and Scott argue. Do they always do that?”

Stiles nodded as he dumped the painting supplies on the counter. “Pretty much. If he didn’t have a girlfriend I’d think they were dating but—I know that’s not true.” Reaching for one of the bags that Laura had in her hand he smiled at her. “Trust me Cora’s lucky he’s with Allison. Pain in the ass.”

Derek stood there for a moment awkwardly as Laura and Stiles began talking before he went to Laura’s car to grab the last couple paint cans. When he returned Stiles was still standing in the back taking everything out of the bags but, Laura had disappeared. Derek froze for a moment still feeling slightly awkward because of the night before. Why the hell was this back room suddenly so damn stuffy? Putting the paint on the other end of the counter Stiles glanced at Derek, waiting for further instruction. Okay maybe if neither of them talked it wouldn’t be so bad. Wrong that was just making things worse.

Stiles was the one that spoke first. Maybe that was a bad idea though since he just wanted to put his foot in his mouth as soon as he did it. “Um—yeah so I’m sorry about last night. I wasn’t trying to be all over you or anything like that. There was something in your hair. I didn’t realize you would freak out like that.”

“I didn’t freak out.” Derek all but whispered.

“Oh no, you freaked out. Froze and acted like I tried to either burn your face off or put some moves on you right in the middle of the bookstore.” Stiles shut up shut up shut up. He was mentally kicking himself for talking but, now that he started he couldn’t stop.

“Okay fine I just thought it was weird and no I didn’t believe that you were putting the moves on me.” Derek snapped

“Yeah don’t give yourself too much credit there buddy.” Stiles retorted before turning and walking back where everyone else was. He honestly didn’t want to be murdered in the back while everyone else was happily chatting and eating none the wiser to his demise.

Growling Derek was more than just a little exasperated. He was ready to throw in the towel for the night except everyone was eating and Laura had mentioned at least starting some of the painting. Raincheck-- raincheck Derek was repeating over and over in his head. But, as soon as she finished her food Laura got up and grabbed some paint and a roller along with tape and a drop sheet to keep the floor from getting damaged. Derek took his time eating not making eye contact with anyone. He’d said the wrong thing yet again even though he was ALMOST sure it was Stiles and not him this time.

One by one everyone got up and started helping with the taping and painting. Derek eventually did the same keeping his distance from Stiles and Scott who had been giving him funny looks since Stiles stormed out of the back. That was perfect in all honesty because Derek didn’t want trouble and a lack of distance meant trouble right? **WRONG—** because Cora found her way over to Derek and just glared at him.

“What do you want? If you keep your face like that it’s going to freeze that way.” Derek looked away and went back to putting tape along the baseboards on the wall.

“What’s going on with you and Stiles? He said you’re a jerk which isn’t a lie but—what did you do?” Cora’s arms crossed over her chest while she waited for an answer.

Of course Derek not being in the mood to talk meant that she was going to be waiting a long time. Huffing something that wasn’t even part of the English language Derek moved to another spot and ignored the questions. Why she automatically assumed it was him and not just Stiles being over sensitive was a mystery.

“Derek” Cora called his name waiting, and Derek who was half way across the room by now looked up.

By this time, he was seething. The entire room had stopped and was watching him which he hated even more. Being the center of attention drove him nuts. Clearing his throat, Derek glanced at Stiles and then back to Cora. When he spoke, his voice was loud so everyone could hear it and extremely calm which immediately worried Boyd. Derek never acted that way unless he was pissed. “I didn’t do anything Cora. As a matter of fact, he tried to apologize for something that happened yesterday when he was helping me. It was a big misunderstanding, so I chalked it up to nothing. _BUT—_ when he started talking he said I freaked out which I did not and just said that. _THEN—_ he said I acted like he was trying to put some ‘moves’ on me. If that makes me a jerk, then I’m sorry.” Tossing the tape down Derek walked into the back room.  
Stiles stood there with his mouth hanging open. Yeah, he had said too much too fast and didn’t pay attention to what was going on. Once again him and his stupid mouth. Everyone turned to look at Stiles who’s face turned about twenty shades of red before Cora walked out after Derek.

Laura and Boyd both looked at Stiles and sighed. Erica just shook her head. “One thing you have to know about Derek. He doesn’t talk a lot but—if he says something isn’t a big deal even if he’s freaking out on the inside, it’s just him processing everything. Just drop it.” Erica turned around and walked towards the back to rinse the roller she’d been using. “Boyd I think that this party is about to end for the night. How about that movie?”

Boyd shrugged and smiled at Laura. “Good luck with this. I’ll check on Derek later.”

“Thanks but he’ll be okay Boyd, he always is.” Laura smiled but then turned her attention to Stiles who was standing next to Scott and Isaac. “If you think for one second that you’re going to be able to try and convince him to let you rent this space you better start listening to him when he says something. Don’t think that I’m not going to say the same thing to him but, I mean it. You aren’t a child. Don’t go running to his sister to cry about something.”

Stiles mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he just huffed. “Great batting a thousand with the Hale’s today aren’t I?”

Scott shrugged. “Coffee and pastries were a good start. Just kind of went downhill from there.”

“Thanks, Scott—thanks for that vote of confidence.” Stiles quipped and then looked around for Isaac who had disappeared.

“He went to check on Cora and Derek. I think he wanted to make sure Derek didn’t hurt her.” Scott answered the question before Stiles could even say a word.

           ...oooOOOOOOooo…

Derek walked out the back exit and was standing in the alley. It wasn’t like he could leave. Everyone in there was there to help him and it would be rude if he just took off, however, for being the one that people wanted to help Derek was feeling just a little attacked right now.

When the door creaked open, Derek shook his head and sighed. “Just give me a few minutes okay? I don’t feel like talking through anything right now.”

“I’m sorry Der,” Cora said before taking a seat on the hood of Laura’s car. She remained silent for a few moments because well, there was a lot she needed to say and the last thing she wanted was for Derek to be mad at her. Especially when she was leaving to go back to school the next day. “Look I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I know better. It’s just that—well, Stiles is the one that Laura and I have been talking to about renting the space and I just didn’t want something to happen to screw it up before there was even a chance.”

Oh, that was precious. Stiles—STILES?!?! Derek threw his hands in the air. What the hell else did the two of them have planned for his store—his life? “I suppose that Laura already has contracts and everything is written up? Bet I’m signing over my first born if I make him miserable enough to break the thing.”

There was a long silence before the door creaked again and this time it was Stiles. Cora raised a brow and then stood up. “Guess I’ll be going now.”

Derek looked over his shoulder and sighed. “Look you don’t need to say anything. I pissed you off I get it. Just—drop everything.” This was going swimmingly. Derek wanted to jump off the top of the building, but that wouldn’t have been good.

“Well---“ Stiles started slowly. He wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to say. “I mean I need to apologize. I made a total ass out of myself and you for no reason.”

“No, it’s fine. I get it.” Derek was used to people assuming he was a jerk based on initial interactions and that wasn’t true. He was difficult sometimes, but he was honestly just a quiet person. “Look I just don’t like talking a lot. That’s why I’m an author okay? I only own this place because I don’t want to have to work a regular job. I won’t be able to write as much and— “

“Dude—that’s exactly why I want to… well, I’m an artist, and I have been looking for a place to display my work and hopefully sell some of it while having a spot to paint. Keeps my dad off my ass while I’m still doing what I love.” Stiles smiled at Derek. Maybe they weren’t as different as he thought.

Boyd poked his head out the door and waved. “Hey, I’ll see you in the morning. Erica and I are leaving.”

Derek nodded his head and waved. “Alright see you two later. Have fun.” Standing up straighter Derek sighed. “Guess I need to get back in there. I’m sure everyone wants to go home for the night. It’s getting late.”

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

Everyone wanting to go home was an understatement. When they walked back into the store, Derek found that Scott had already left because he had a date. Cora and Isaac left together which meant that Derek was going to have to pull big brother duty later and have a talk with him. Laura was getting ready to go. The last brush had just been rinsed out, and she was hanging around waiting to make sure that Derek didn’t kill Stiles.

“Laura I’m not homicidal I don’t know why you think that.”

Stiles jumped in quickly without thinking. “It’s the eyebrows. And that jaw and when you get mad you look like you’re going to pounce on someone and not in the sexy way…” Stiles shut his mouth when both Laura and Derek stopped to stare at him. “I did it again didn’t I.”

Laura just started laughing and shook her head. “How you have managed to make it this far in life Stiles is a mystery. But, a funny one that’s for sure. Derek, I will see you in the morning with your coffee just the way you like it.”

Derek waved at Laura, and she disappeared out the back of the store locking the door behind her.

Stiles grabbed his jacket and sighed. “I better get going. It’s a long walk and since everyone ditched me.” He smiled and waved at Derek before opening the front door and walking out.

Derek didn’t even have a chance to offer a ride which he was going to do. He walked to the front door and opened it but Stiles was already a few doors down, and he didn’t want to yell at him. Instead, he quickly packed up the leftovers and grabbed his jacket. Getting into his car, Derek drove off and quickly pulled up next to Stiles walking down the road. Rolling down his window, he called out over the engine. “You took off before I could offer you a ride. Get in; I’ll drive you home.”

The last thing he expected after everything was for Derek fucking Hale to offer him a ride home.   
Stiles had all but made him look like the biggest asshole on the planet. Stiles paused for a moment eyeing Derek. He wasn’t pissed exactly. They’d talked through the whole misunderstanding that they’d had. Stiles just couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on and why he always seemed to say the stupidest possible thing.

“Well? Are you going to get in or what?” Derek wasn’t trying to be impatient, but he was practically stopped in the middle of the road.

“Oh, uh, yeah sure.” Stiles broke out of his thoughts and jogged over to the passenger side of the car. “Thanks.”

Derek nodded and pulled back out completely into the street. “So, you said you were an artist huh?” He was bad at small talk but figured if they were going to be in the car for a few minutes he might want to try.

“Yeah… yes, indeed I’m an artist. I paint and sculpt some, but I’m a lot better with paint.” Stiles could feel that he was on the verge of rambling but tried to reel himself back in. “I could if you want… Well, I could show you some of my work sometime if you’re interested. You totally don’t have to; I just thought maybe since you asked you were curious if I was just one of those people that wished or had actual talent and—“ Snapping his mouth shut Stiles glanced over at Derek. _**GREAT**_ he was starting again.

For a few seconds, Derek listened to him talking and then began to laugh. He was nervous about something. “Yeah sure. That would be great. Especially if my sisters already have it in their head that I have to let you rent the space in the bookstore out.”

Glancing at Derek Stiles then looked back out the window. He was at a loss as to what to say because the last thing he wanted was to be there because Derek’s sisters forced him to let Stiles rent the space. Suddenly the road became very interesting. The way that the moon hit the pavement and the blur of leaves on trees as Derek’s car drove by.

Snapping out of his reverie Stiles managed to point ahead of himself. “Turn left there.”

Derek nodded and quickly turned the car down the street.

It didn’t take long to get to Stiles house from there, and once in the drive, Derek glanced over. “Thanks for your help today. I appreciate it more than you know.”

Stiles nodded his head reaching for the door. “Yeah, sure no problemo. See you tomorrow morning with coffee.” Waving over his shoulder before closing the door behind him, Stiles made his way quickly to the front door.

           ...oooOOOOOOooo…

Weird—Derek thought as he drove home. It was like the minute Stiles was in the car he was counting the seconds until he could get out and yeah sure Derek was pretty scary even Derek could readily admit that. _**(** he’d been told on many occasions by many people. **)** _ He wasn’t mean once you got to know it. **NOT** that Stiles or most of his friends would know that. Maybe Isaac would beg to differ but even that Derek wasn’t certain of.

He’d lost himself in thought as he made his way back home. Derek’s mind was clouded with everything that was going on with him. The notion of losing his store even if it was merely on paper just made him sick. He hated it. So lost in his thoughts Derek barely noticed his phone ringing. Once he snapped himself from his thoughts, he pulled the phone from his jacket pocket and sighed when he saw that it was his sister. Derek wanted— wanted to ignore the call but he knew that if he did she would keep calling. With a huff, he answered the phone. “Yeah Laura”

Laura huffed. “Derek where are you? I’m at your loft with dinner, and you’re still not home.”

“Yeah, I thought it would be pretty rude of me to make Stiles walk back after he’d spent his entire day helping at the store.” Derek snarked at Laura. “So, I’m on my way now.” He had just turned down his road and was almost to the parking garage.

“I’ll see you in a few Der-bear” Laura snorted and then hung up the phone.

Derek got home and ate dinner with Laura. The two, for the most part, was silent which was nice. Laura never pushed Derek to talk when she knew it would get her nowhere. They flipped through the channels and watched random bits of television shows until Laura yawned.

“Guess I should get home. See you in the morning little brother.”

Derek glanced at Laura from where he was practically asleep on the couch. He nodded his head and grunted something close to a ‘goodnight’ He remained there for a little while longer and then got up and went to bed.

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

The alarm didn’t have a chance to go off tearing Derek from his sleep, and he felt accomplished beating the alarm out of bed hitting the shower. Honestly, had it not been for the fact that the warm water felt exceptionally good on the muscles that Derek didn’t realize would be stiff he would have been ready long before Laura showed up with coffee. But, the way the water hit his skin and forced his muscles to relax just meant that Derek lingered longer than he should have.

Pounding on the door forced Derek to speed through getting dressed. Tugging his shirt over his head while he made his way to the door to let Laura in Derek huffed opening it. “You could at least wait just one minute. I was attempting to get dressed.”

Laura walked passed him eyeing the fact that Derek still hadn’t gotten socks on and his hair a wet mess. “You haven’t mastered that skill yet.” Although if Laura told Derek the truth, it would be that she was glad he was awake this morning.

“HAHAHA” Derek rolled his eyes closing the door and following Laura back into the loft. He disappeared back into his room where he finished toweling off his hair and putting on a pair of socks.

When he emerged from his room, Derek glanced at Laura who still had two cups of coffee. Part of him was about to ask which was his but knowing Laura she would then drink both. Derek grabbed his shoes, keys, and jacket. It was early still, and he wasn’t in a rush but, he also didn’t feel like having Laura tease him all morning about being slow.

“You know you didn’t have to come over here. I would have been at the store early.” Derek stated sitting down to put on his shoes.

“Yes you would have, but you wouldn’t have had the coffee that I promised you.” Laura set the cup in front of him. “Now, did you want to drive separately again today?”

It was a fair question, but Derek thought that maybe it would be better if he did so that if anyone was left without a ride, he could take them home after he was done putting the finishing touches on things. Those were what Derek would do himself. He always wanted everything to be just so.

It was something that had been a habit of his since he was a child. Talia used to tease him and call him a perfectionist. Laura thought it was annoying but Derek, just liked things a specific way.

That only carried over into Turn the Page. “Yeah think that’s the best thing to do in case someone needs a ride home.” Grabbing the coffee from the table, Derek took a sip.

Laura watched her brother and wanted to make a comment but instead held her tongue. She sat in silence for a few minutes before standing up. “Let’s go and beat everyone there. Maybe we can get started on the last of the painting so we can get the shelves all moved and in place before lunch.”

Derek had lost himself in thought. His most recent book was starting to become stagnant, and he had a feeling it was because of the recent stress he’d been under. Hell the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he hadn’t written in a couple of weeks and for him that just wasn’t normal.

Long ago Derek had decided that if something like this happened, he would do something to try and kick start his creative energy. Although maybe this little remodel would help. He’d be lying if he said that things didn’t feel a little stagnant around the store lately.

“Yeah, that sounds fine.” He muttered registering Laura’s comments and standing up with his keys and coffee in hand.

           ...oooOOOOOOooo…

Stiles overslept as usual. When he’d gotten home the night before and stayed up talking to his dad about what he’d been doing that day which John still didn’t quite buy Stiles knew that it was going to be hard to wake up though his intention was to at least be up and showered before his ride showed.

The thump on the back of his head was what startled him out of his dreams. Left flailing awake Stiles jumped out of bed. “Wha… I’m up I’m up, just give me a minute.”

Isaac who had taken his place back in the chair at Stiles’ desk wasn’t paying attention. He glanced up and raised a brow. “You look like hell. Thought you wanted to wake up early and stop for coffee for everyone?”

And—so what if he forgot that completely. Yeah, he’d promised Derek that he’d be there in the morning with coffee and maybe he was sure that there was no way in hell that a Hale was going to show up this early without coffee but, Stiles still felt bad. “Dude don’t give me crap. My dad kept me up late rambling about needing to get a job.” God, he needed to take a shower. After yesterday he didn’t want to show up with bedhead and red eyes. Everyone would think he had a late night which technically he did but not in a fun way. “Can you go grab the coffee, and I’ll be ready when you get back.”

Kicking his foot back onto the ground Isaac stood up. “Just get dressed we’re supposed to be there in twenty minutes.” No, it was true that he wasn’t getting paid, but Isaac didn’t want to make a bad impression on Derek’s sister Cora. “Hurry up.”

“Yeah well…” Stiles reached down and grabbed the jeans he’d tossed on the corner of his bed the night before that he’d managed to kick off in the middle of the night. “Kinda hard to get ready when you’re standing here. We’ve been friends for a long time but, I don’t want you staring at my junk.”

Isaac rolled his eyes and turned around. “You wish I’d stare at your junk. I’ll be in the car.” With that, the other boy sauntered out of the room and house.

Stiles could hear Isaac’s car start and immediately began tossing clothes on. He didn’t want to wear anything nice because well, painting a room wasn’t like painting a picture. Clothes could be ruined, and that was a big no no in the Stilinski handbook.

After pulling his socks on and making an attempt to smooth out his hair Stiles was putting his shoes on as he made his way down the stairs. It was a damn near miracle that he hadn’t tripped, but he somehow made it.

Scott was again meeting them there this time he was supposed to be bringing Allison. The two had a date the night before, and he was telling her about what they’d been doing, and since she thought it sounded interesting, she asked to come along. Stiles thought about texting to make sure he was up but decided against it.

Slipping into the passenger seat of Isaac’s car Stiles glanced in the back. He was surprised to find coffee and donuts already there. “I knew you weren’t up when I called before I left home, so I stopped on my way and picked everything up.” There was a small smirk on Isaac’s face, and he pulled out of the driveway.

“Sweet how much do I owe you?” Stiles was reaching for his wallet to pay him for everything.

There was one thing that Stiles and Scott always made sure of, and that was that if Isaac paid for something they always paid him back or slipped money in his car for him to find later. He’d been on his own since his father died and worked hard to get through school so the two didn’t think it was fair to let him pay for things that they could easily afford.

“Don’t worry about it and don’t try and slip any money in the glove compartment. I locked it.” Isaac turned towards the bookstore and sighed. “Looks like all the Hale’s are already there.”

“Oh don’t tell me you’re complaining. I can see the way you’re checking out Cora and—did you two end up on a date last night?” Stiles was being nosey, but he didn’t care he needed to live vicariously through someone.

Scoffing Isaac shook his head. “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.” And that was as far as the conversation got because the car stopped along the curb in front of Turn the Page and the two boys got out.

“We come baring gifts.” Isaac chimed as he set the coffee on the counter.

Laura’s lips spread across her teeth in a bright smile. “My heroes—I just finished the last of mine. Was almost going to steal Derek’s.”

Derek raised a brow but shrugged and went back to painting. He did spare a moment to wave at the two when they walked in. After he finished what he was working on and was satisfied that the wall looked okay Derek turned to face the other four who were chatting away and drinking coffee. “I… uh… I wanted to thank you guys for helping so much. I appreciate it.” Disappearing into the back Derek washed the bits of paint that had gotten onto his hands.

Stiles nodded as Derek talked and then when he disappeared there was a moment when Stiles considered following him, but he pushed that aside. At least he was going to push it aside until he realized that the coffee was almost gone. Then he slipped into the back and cleared his throat. “Hey if you want more coffee I’d hurry up. I didn’t realize that your sisters could drink it like that.”

The voice came as a surprise. Derek was taking a moment attempting to pull himself together. It was stressful dealing with all of this and while he was painting he’d come up with an idea for a story. There wasn’t any certainty that it would go anywhere but, Derek didn’t want to lose the thought, so he’d stopped in his office and pulled his laptop out to type out a few lines just so there was a note about what he’d been thinking. His laptop was full of those little ideas that he’d always come up with and swear he was going to get back too. Most of the time he never did.

“Yeah uh—it’s fine I’m just trying to type something out, so I don’t forget it.” The words slipped out of Derek’s mouth before he’d realized what he said and Stiles was soon standing over his shoulder. Derek closed the laptop quickly once he realized that Stiles was standing there. The last thing he wanted was someone reading his thoughts. It was like looking at him when he was naked—okay not quite, but he still felt pretty damn vulnerable.

“Oookay—well, I guess I’ll just be out there doing whatever Laura tells me to. Sorry to inconvenience you.” Stiles turned and walked away. He could understand in a way because he hated when people looked at his paintings before they were done. So, he wasn’t terribly offended by Derek’s actions although as an artist he was only curious.

When he reemerged from the back, Laura glanced at him. Scott had shown up with Allison, and they were starting to remove the tape that had been used to protect the walls. “Yeah, so Derek’s in the back making notes about something.”

Cora just snorted. “He must have come up with some kind of idea when he was painting. That explains why he was so quiet.”

Isaac looked confused for a moment but didn’t question anything.

“Our brother the writer—with zero people skills.” Laura was teasing but then was a little surprised when Stiles piped up to his defense.

“Most writers are quiet. They just tend to be pretty introverted.” Stiles shrugged. “Aren’t you used to it by now. They like to live in their own heads. I do that too sometimes but—“ Stiles quit talking as soon as he saw Derek walking back into the room.

“Okay, now that everyone’s done analyzing me I think we can probably move shelves where they need to be. Children’s section over here.” Derek motioned to the right of the register where the old seating area was. “Then everything else in sections on the left. References along that back wall and then—“ Pausing Derek sighed. “I’ll show you what I had planned out for that side since it’s going to be just a smaller scale of what it used to be.” Pulling out a diagram that well, Derek was sure didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Artist, he was not—it at least gave everyone a rough idea of where Derek wanted things.

“So, Derek have you given any thought to who’s going to rent the space?” Cora asked the question avoiding the warning glares from everyone else in the room.

Looking up from the page that he had been using to explain things to everyone Derek glanced at Cora. “No Cora I thought you and Laura had taken care of all that for me.”  
Isaac just shook his head while Scott, Stiles, and Allison silently began to move shelves and crates of books.

Isaac turned to them and then darted to the back. “Don’t forget to anchor the shelves before you start putting books on them.” Handing the large screws and a couple of screwdrivers over everyone got to work.

Cora walked over to Derek. “I never said that’s what you had to do it was a suggestion Der that’s all. I’m sure Laura would say the same thing.”

Derek wanted to argue but now wasn’t the time and he knew he’d end up frustrated and lose anyways.

Silently everyone worked moving shelves and anchoring them to the walls and ceiling. It was a big task, but once all the shelves were in place, Derek looked around and was pretty pleased with the way everything looked. Glancing at the clock, he cleared his throat. “Why don’t you guys all go eat or something? There’s still stuff that I’ve got to do but, you’ve helped a lot already and—you don’t have to stay.”

Isaac and Cora glanced at each other with a shrug. Laura walked up to Derek and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be back in a little bit. I do have a meeting that I’m supposed to go to.” Derek nodded and watched as Cora and Isaac moved towards the door.

“Derek we’re going to leave too. But, I’ll come back in a little bit because I’d like to spend some time with you that’s not work before I leave to head back to school today.” Cora turned and smiled at her brother.

“I’ll be back too.” Isaac smiled. “I actually like doing this stuff.”

Derek figured that he’d be alone in the afternoon and while the idea of shelving the books alone seemed overwhelming Derek didn’t want to ask for help. Not when he’d gotten so much already.

Scott and Allison tried to convince Stiles to leave for lunch with them, and Stiles just shook his head. “Nah I’m okay. There’s a place right around the corner that makes pretty good pizza, and I’ll walk over there in a few. Don’t want Derek stuck doing all this crap all by himself do you?”

Scott shrugged because it wasn’t as important to him as it seemed to Stiles to stay behind and help.

When Scott and Allison were leaving Scott waved to Derek. “See you later Derek.”

“Yeah, thanks for all your help. I appreciate it.” Derek’s words were quiet, but Scott did manage to hear them.

After everyone was gone Stiles looked at Derek. “Okay boss so what do you want me to do? What are we doing first?”

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

After Stiles made it clear that he wasn’t leaving Derek continued working on arranging books on the shelves. He had planned on taking a little time to write but, with the extra help, Derek thought that maybe they could get done with a lot of the stuff before everyone got back.

The question surprised Derek completely. Pausing for a moment, Derek glanced back while he was in the middle of moving things. “Um—if you want to just start arranging the kid's section that would be a huge help.”

Giving Derek a poor attempt at a salute Stiles moved to the area where the children’s section was moved and started arranging books. The two quickly fell into a silent work effort. Stiles lost himself in thought easily wondering what it would be like to arrange the studio area the way he would like it. His paintings were decorating the walls and his easel along with paints spread throughout the room.

Soon the reference section was arranged, and Derek moved to the nonfiction. It wasn’t something that he necessarily liked doing but, it was easy to see that things were coming together quickly and that everything looked a lot cleaner and just nice. There was a weight that was lifted off of him.

Once the children’s section was set up, Stiles took a seat in one of the comfy chairs that were situated in that area. “So—do you feel like getting anything for lunch? We could order a pizza if you want to keep working.”

It was a nice offer, and Derek wasn’t sure why Stiles was going out of his way to be so nice to him. In all honesty, he figured that he’d been rude enough that the guy wouldn’t want to talk to him at all. Pausing Derek glanced at Stiles for a moment and then nodded. “Sure why not.

Unless you want to go out and get something because being stuck around me is probably not the most enjoyable thing.”

Stiles snorted. “I’m not big on eating alone and besides when you’re not being all growly and mean you aren’t so bad.” With that Stiles picked up the phone and the two ordered pizza and ate lunch together.

By the time everyone else returned to Turn the Page the shelves were almost totally restocked, and it didn’t take long to complete. In a way, Derek was glad because it gave him a little time to spend with Cora who was leaving to head back to school in a few hours.

Before Stiles left with Isaac Derek told him to come by the next day so that they could discuss the possibility of renting out the studio space. “It’s not a guaranteed thing regardless of what my sister’s tell you,” Derek commented as Stiles walked out the door.

Cora just glared at Derek. “You know that there’s no one else that you’re going to be able to find that’s going to want to even think about dealing with you—the moody author so, you might as well just deal with it.”

Derek grumbled something that wasn’t very coherent, and the two locked the bookstore up and left together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of what I've got edited thus far and still I feel like I should have spent more time on this chapter. Either way, here it is. 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a decent day for Derek and a great day for Stiles, the two decide to hang out after work. Dinner and movie at Derek's loft what could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again just a quick note, this is a re-post, rewrite, re-work of an old fic. I don't want anyone not to recognize the screenname and think I 'stole' the work. It was taken down, and now I'm getting around to reworking the thing.

Bright and early Monday morning Derek was at Turn the Page and for the first time in as long as he could remember people were waiting outside the doors. Derek knew they were curious why the store had been closed all weekend.

 

It was funny how word spread around the smaller town. The doors were closed, and even while he was in the place sprucing it up with his army of helpers, Derek still heard the rumors that the place was going to close. It could still happen but the whole point of the past weekend was to avoid that.

 

At nine Derek opened the doors and was greeted by a swarm of interested _‘customers.'_ He would be surprised if anyone bought anything. In his usual way, Derek just remained his quiet, stoic self behind the counter nodding when customers greeted him, and he offered help when someone asked for it. He was pleasantly surprised that most of the people made at least some purchase. The remodel should have happened sooner. Everyone had so many nice things to say, and a couple inquired about the open space towards the front of the store and wanted to know if 

 

Derek wanted to say already had the place leased out. It was hard to admit that no he didn’t but that he had a couple of people in mind and if they fell through he would be advertising later in the month. That was the standard answer he gave to anyone that inquired. 

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXXxxx…

 

Finally, after eleven things started to slow down and Derek could take a breath. Derek took a seat at the table behind the counter, opened his laptop and stared at the screen for a long moment. For the first time in a long while, he had something to say, and it was fantastic to be able to lose himself. He almost didn’t hear the buzzer over the door when it went off. It wasn’t until someone was standing at the counter clearing their throat that Derek looked up a little lost in thought still. It was hard not get lost when writing about what had happened over the weekend. Somewhere in that account, there was a story waiting to be told, and Derek was slowly finding his way to it.

 

“Oh—I’m sorry I was a little…” Looking in the direction of the person that had cleared their throat Derek smiled. “Stiles, I thought you wouldn’t be around until later today.” Standing Derek closed the laptop and walked around the counter.

 

Yeah, he hadn’t planned on coming until later, but when he woke up that morning, Stiles was restless. He’d tried painting the picture he’d seen the other day. It was something that he wanted to capture and remember for the rest of his life, the way the streetlights played on the pavement but, it just was missing something so, he moved on. But, even the fields looked lackluster, and that was something that Stiles had always managed to pull off with precision and beauty. So, rather than wallow in his lack of muse he showered and dressed himself leaving the Stilinski home and walking down to the bookstore.

 

“Well, I wasn’t feeling very productive this morning, so I thought that maybe I’d go out for a walk and check things out—and guess what? I found myself here with coffee.” Stiles handed Derek a cup of coffee that had cream and sugar the way he liked but would never admit. Laura had told Stiles all about Derek’s little secret coffee tastes. “I see you’re hard at work.” Stiles motioned to the laptop behind them. The last thing he wanted was to become an annoyance, but at the same time, there was something about Derek that drew him in. 

 

Derek gratefully took the coffee though he was more than just a little surprised by the cream and sugar in the cup. Laura—he thought to himself but didn’t say a word. Derek glanced back over his shoulder at the laptop that he'd been typing away on. It was true Derek had managed to make a few notes, but nothing overly productive was accomplished.

 

“The most productive thing today was the line of people waiting to get in here this morning. You would have been shocked, and I’ve already had three people ask about renting that spot up front.” Derek sipped the coffee and then quickly added. “I told them that it wasn’t actually on the market yet so—if you were seriously interested in it I suggest getting things together.”

 

The last thing Derek wanted was a bookstore full of pornographic art. Sure, some people could understand and appreciate it—him being one but, this was a family friendly place, and he wanted to keep it that way.

 

Reaching into the messenger bag that was slung over his shoulder Stiles pulled a book out of it and handed it to Derek. “Just so happens that I have what you're referring to; if you’re talking about a portfolio. If you aren’t well, then I think you'll have to be more specific.”

 

Derek took the book from Stiles’ hand and started to flip through the pages. Now unlike writing, he didn’t know much about painting. Sure he knew what he liked but, when it came to things that were beautiful or well done Derek wasn’t sure. Laura, on the other hand, did know a thing or two about art and she was the one that highly recommended Stiles. After looking at the various paintings, Derek would have been lying if he said he wasn’t impressed.

 

“Wow—Laura told me you were good but, I thought she was just buttering me up for something,” Derek commented handing Stiles his portfolio back.

 

A blush crept up Stiles cheeks because no matter how many times he was told that his work was good it was always nice to hear, and over the years he’d still managed to remain humble about it.

 

“Thanks—does that mean that I can rent the space out because well, my dad would like to see me get a real job, and I would really like to be able to keep painting instead of punching a clock.”

 

So, there was a camaraderie between the two of them. Derek and Stiles both wanted this type of job for the same reason. Derek acted as though he had to think about it for a few minutes because well, he didn’t want Stiles to assume that it was that easy. Eventually, Derek nodded his head.

 

“Yeah, you can start moving your stuff in today—after closing, if you'd like help just let me know. We should probably go over a few of the rules—meaning just the make life easier for us to work under the same roof all the time things.” Derek thought that it would be for the best because he knew he was difficult. Cora and Laura had made sure to tell him that every day.

 

Stiles couldn’t hide the excited smile that spread across his face. “You won’t regret this I swear. Well, maybe you will, but I’ll try not to make you regret this and yeah rules. I can live with rules. What kind of rules did you have in mind?”

 

Derek went over a few simple rules; someone needed to be in the store at all times, and if Derek couldn’t be there he would need Stiles to run the register for the bookstore as well though he typically made all of his appointments for when the store was closed. It wasn’t much and even though Derek could see that Stiles had a lot more energy than he’d expected he was hopeful that it was just nervous energy and would subside after a few days.

 

Stiles left the store once everything was settled and started to pack up his art supplies. Derek had agreed to stop by after closing the store to help him move things out of the basement and into the studio area.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

If he was worried at the prospect of moving his stuff before, now Stiles was terrified. His walk home went by quickly though he stopped off at the vet clinic where Scott worked. Stiles flopped onto the counter and started rambling on and on about how he wasn't going to make an idiot of himself in front of Derek. Scott well, he didn't offer much regarding a vote of confidence. The other man just looked at him with a raised eyebrow and snorted.

 

“Stiles maybe you should just worry about getting your stuff moved in and make sure that you can make money there.”

 

Stiles looked hurt. His eyes fell to his hands for a moment before he glanced back up at Scott. “Thanks for the vote of confidence Scotty. I thought you thought more of me.”

 

Scott sighed and walked around the table to stand in front of Stiles. “You know that’s not what I meant. I know that you’re capable of the whole art thing. I just mean that this entire studio of your own is a huge deal.”

 

Deep down Stiles knew what he meant and Scott was right, but there wasn’t a doubt in Stiles’ mind that he would be able to pull that off.

 

“Well, I have to start getting things packed up. Derek’s stopping by the help me get everything moved. Guess he thinks that he needs to return the favor since we helped over the weekend.” 

 

Stiles waved his hand over his shoulder as he left. It was funny to him that the days could go on and on like nothing had changed yet everything was so different. The sun was bright, as usual, and Stiles wished he'd grabbed a pair of sunglasses when he left home. Instead, he squinted against the bright light as he walked down the street.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

Packing up his paintings was easy. The sleeves held them neatly and made moving them very convenient, but the paint, on the other hand, was a disaster waiting to happen. Stiles didn’t like the idea of making a mess all over Derek’s car. It was bound to happen since Stiles was considered a walking disaster. All his flailing limbs and awkward actions. 

 

Stiles' dad came home and walked down into the basement. Eyes narrowing, he cleared his throat. “Son, what are you doing?”

 

Stiles paused for a moment while attempting to close all of his paint up and pack them away so that they wouldn’t spill. He looked up at his dad and smiled. “Well, I found a studio that I can use that’s going to also double as a place to sell my art.” For the first time in a very long time, Stiles was proud.

 

John hesitated for a moment. He didn’t doubt Stiles’ talent, however; he was concerned that he’d be able to afford something like that because art in Beacon Hills wasn’t the most common thing—

 

“Before you say anything else, I’m selling things online too, and I’ve got this dad. Don’t worry.”

 

It was a far-fetched request because John was always going to worry about his son. He was the only family he had left. It was hard to get Stiles to understand that though. “Yeah, easier said than done Stiles.” He finally answered coming the rest of the way down the stairs. “Did you want me to help you pack the rest of your stuff up or move it or---“ He trailed off not knowing what else to say.

 

Smiling Stiles shook his head. Derek was going to be there soon, and there wasn’t much left to pack up. Just the last of his paint. Everything else was as packed as it was going to get. “No, it’s okay. I’m almost done. Just a few more paints to pack away and then Derek was going to stop by to help me get things to the studio.”

 

“Derek… as in Hale?” John knew the name because he’d worked with Laura numerous times. He didn't know Derek much at all though. Derek was the quiet one, the one that took the death of his parents particularly hard. Before their death, John remembered the teenager that had been happy go lucky, almost immediately after their death he changed. He became someone completely different in many ways. John always wished that he could have done more for him, but that just wasn't possible.

 

“Yeah as in Hale.” Stiles nodded his head and packed the last of the paints away.

 

“Just don’t mess it up, son. He comes from a good family. They’ve been through a lot. He’s got a couple of wonderful sisters.”

 

Stiles agreed that Cora was nice and he got along really well with Laura. Derek and him well, they got off to a rough start, but in the end, Stiles thought that things were going to be good between them.

 

“You worry too much dad.” And Stiles thought that was true even though he knew that John would tell him that he was supposed to worry that much.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

Could things go any slower? Derek was bored and even while he wrote his mind kept drifting to his plans after the bookstore closed. Why on earth was he waiting so long to close when Monday evenings tended to be the slowest of the week. Thankfully at four business started to pick up. 

 

It was a surprise to Derek that there was a line at the register and when Laura walked in he was more than a little happy to see his older sister. “Did you come to help me?” Derek asked looking a little bewildered. She only smiled and nodded her head.

 

Laura had sent all of her colleagues over to check out the place, and they were all rather impressed and wondered why she’d never told them about it before.

 

By the time the store cleared out it was seven and Derek sighed. “I’m supposed to go and help Stiles move his stuff into the studio once we close. In another hour I’m going to be exhausted.” It was his way of hinting at the fact that he wanted Laura to watch the place for him while he went to start helping Stiles.

 

“Fine Derek go but—hurry back, so I’m not stuck here all night. I do have to go and get some stuff done for the case I’m working on.”

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXXxxx…

 

Before she even finished her sentence, Derek was out the door and in his car with the engine started. It didn’t take long to get to Stiles’. Derek got out of his car once he parked and walked to the front door. The sheriff answered the door yet remained silent. Usually, that didn’t bother Derek, but for some reason, while he was standing there it seemed so intimidating.

 

“Uh—Hi I was supposed to be here to help Stiles move a few things.”

 

The door opened, and the Sheriff stepped aside. “Derek nice to meet you. Yeah, Stiles said you would be here. I don’t think he was expecting you just yet but, I believe he’s got everything packed up to move.” Turning away from the door and towards the basement, he cleared his throat. “ ** _STILES—_** Derek’s here.”

 

There was a thud and stomping up the stairs that sounded very graceless, but soon Stiles was stumbling around a corner. “Derek—wasn’t expecting you for like another hour. Um—yeah can you give me like five minutes and I’ll start carrying things up?”

 

“Yeah sure,” Derek nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets.

 

Derek would have been lying if he said he wasn’t uncomfortable. He was standing in the living room at the Stilinski house, the Sheriff watching television without so much as looking up at him. 

 

In a way, Derek wasn’t sure if he had somehow offended him by just living and breathing. Once Stiles disappeared down the stairs, John looked over at Derek. “You’re Laura’s brother?”

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he knew Laura and sooner or later he’d end up being known as Cora’s brother too. Derek nodded his head and cleared his throat. “Yeah, she’s my older sister.”

 

Stiles then came clopping up the stairs, and Derek’s attention was drawn back to him. “Okay I’m ready—here’s the stuff that should probably be in the front with me. Paint and all that. Don’t think that you want that all over the place.”

 

**EVER—** Derek didn’t want paint all over ever but, he didn’t say anything just shrugged his shoulders and laughed a little. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. But, keep it out of the way while we try and get everything moved for now.”

 

John got off the couch and walked towards the basement. “Why don’t you let me help you two boys get some of that stuff.”

 

Stiles immediately turned and shook his head. “No dad it’s okay. You worked all day, and there’s not that much. Besides—it’s not good for you to lift all that stuff it’s heavy. That’s what Derek’s for right?” Stiles shot a ‘help me please’ look at Derek.

 

This was one of those situations that Derek had spent years avoiding, but instead, he walked towards the stairs and just smiled at the sheriff. “It’s okay. I’ll help him. Then we’ll have all this out of here.” Derek disappeared down the stairs and grabbed a couple of boxes to carry up.  A couple more containers looked like they were something he didn't want to touch, they looked like they held paintings or canvases and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin something valuable.

 

Picking up the two boxes Derek walked back up the stairs and headed towards the door. “Stiles how about instead of standing there and holding up the wall you get the stuff that looks like I’d probably break it. I’ve been working all day and still have to eat. Oh and I’d like to go home today.” He was teasing, but Derek did want to get moving. He didn’t know if it would take more than one trip to move everything or not so taking their time wasn’t something that Derek wanted to do.

 

Stiles jumped and darted down the stairs scowling the entire time. John just laughed and shook his head grabbing the door for Derek. “Good luck with him.”

 

Brow raising Derek snorted. “He’s coming home. I’m not keeping him.”

 

After that moving the art supplies was quick and the two were on their way back to Turn the Page in no time. Derek was pretty quiet. He’d been up for a long time and the day had been rather busy. Busier than he would have ever expected for a Monday, but considering all the nosey spectators that tried to see what was going on over the weekend he wasn’t all that surprised.

 

Instead of parking around back like usual Derek parked right out front and unlocked the front door so that it was a quick unload for them. He’d left the floor covered for the most part in the area where Stiles would be not knowing how he wanted to organize things.

 

“I—I uh wasn’t sure how you wanted to arrange things and it took us a little longer than I expected. Laura was here but,” There was a note on the counter from Laura. Derek walked over to read it. Stiles grabbed his canvases and art and instead of following Derek walked over towards the area he’d be using.

 

> _ Der bear, _
> 
> _ I locked up. Closed the register out and put it in the office.  _
> 
> _ I’ll see you Sunday for dinner if you have time. If not, I’ll  _
> 
> _ talk to you soon I’m sure. _
> 
> _ Laura _
> 
> _ P.S. _
> 
> _ Don’t get into a fight with Stiles on the first night. It  _
> 
> _ would be bad business. _
> 
>  

Rolling his eyes at the last line, Derek put the note back on the counter and turned to go finish helping Stiles get everything out of his car. He wanted to move it to the back alley and lock the store back up before someone started to think they were open again.

 

“Are you hungry?” Derek asked after they got the last couple of boxes out of the car. “The Chinese place around the corner delivers, and while you’re trying to arrange things we could order that.”

 

Stiles paused for a moment and reached for his wallet, which of course in his rush to get out of the house he’d forgotten. “Uh, I forgot my wallet damn.” He muttered under his breath.

 

“Don’t worry about it. What do you want? I’m not gonna eat in front of you and let you starve. I know you think I’m mean, but even I’m not that cruel.” Derek snorted and reached into the drawer that he kept all the take out menus in and handed one to Stiles. “They’ve got delicious broccoli chicken if you like it.”

 

Stiles pulled a face that was nothing short of ‘that sounds gross dude’ and shook his head. “Yeah no how about something a little bit spicier--- General Tso chicken?”

 

“Sure if that’s what you want. I can order some of that too.” Derek called and ordered dinner on the phone in the back room. He gave them his credit card number and returned to the front and waited for the delivery guy.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXXxxx…

 

Wandering over to where Stiles was displaying paintings Derek stood quietly for a moment and then cleared his throat. “Did you want some help or I could continue being completely useless.”

 

Stiles turned around and smiled. “This is the hardest part. I’ll need your help in a bit.”

 

Derek smiled and walked to where his laptop was and opened it to start writing again. He’d lost track of time until someone was knocking on the door and he looked up to see the delivery man standing there. Jumping up Derek went to answer the door and sign the receipt. Thankfully the place heard him say that he needed a fork because chopsticks were one thing that he’d never been able to master.

 

“Stiles food—“ Derek announced looking over to see the other man sitting on the floor with a weird look on his face. His name pulled him out of his concentration though, and he jumped up.

 

“Gah I’m starving this is perfect. Derek, you’re the best.” Stiles was already cooing before he’d even taken a bite and judging from the way he was acting Derek figured that he was only going to get louder. Grabbing a fork and taking a bite Stiles only groaned louder. “Yes, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

 

Derek rolled his eyes taking a bite of broccoli. “Seriously if all I had to do was buy Chinese food I would have done that days ago.” It would have made the whole painting fiasco a lot easier to handle. Maybe the two of them wouldn't have fought the way they did.

 

Stiles snorted and shook his head, and the two fell into silence as they continued eating.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXXxxx…

 

It had been about a week after Stiles moved his art into the bookstore. Derek was starting to get used to having him around. For the first few days, he thought that he was going to go slowly insane but, instead he figured out ways to ignore him.

 

Stiles hummed—a lot especially when he was painting, which at first made writing difficult. 

 

Derek had a hard time concentrating if a lot was going on around him. Stiles humming was enough to drive him nuts. After a few days though Derek got used to it. Humming while painting, while stocking shelves, and while ringing up customers. Eventually, Derek just used headphones and ignored the other man.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

Derek liked the sound of the keys on his keyboard clicking. It made him feel like he was accomplishing something. Even if he didn’t know exactly what he was writing and he was just typing out thoughts and ideas it was something— With his headphones in Derek didn’t realize that Stiles had quit painting and made his way over to the table that Derek was using. It wasn’t until Stiles was almost leaning on his shoulder that Derek jumped slamming the lid to his laptop closed and jerking the headphones out of his ears.

 

“What the hell Stiles? You can’t just sneak up on someone and read over their shoulder.” Derek scowled at him before standing up to get a bottle of water from the back room. “How would you like it if I snuck up on you while you were humming and painting just to see what you were painting before you finished?”

 

The outburst surprised Stiles. Not because he didn’t think that he deserved it. He was snooping and shouldn’t have been, but Derek had been silent for the majority of the day, and that made him curious. Derek would say something—anything, but instead, he sat at his table with his laptop just typing away, and it was making Stiles feel ignored. Not that that mattered. The truth was that it shouldn't matter all if he felt neglected, but it did. That was something that Stiles hated to admit. “I’m sorry. You’ve been so quiet I just wondered if you were typing or if you had a stroke or something.” He retorted eyes following Derek as he left the room. Shrugging Stiles went back to his painting.

 

Derek sipped his water in the back for a few minutes to cool down. The last thing he needed was for Stiles to read what he’d been writing. Sure there was nothing that made it seem like Derek was specifically writing about him but—well, he kind of was, and this entire situation was now awkward. Derek replaced the cap to his bottle and returned to the front of the store when he heard the bell ring. “Hey Isaac, what’re you doing here?” If his eyes narrowed, Derek would never admit it.

 

Stiles came darting around and waved to Isaac. “Isaac man you’ve gotta get over here and see this. It’s-- well, it’s finally my space, and I think it looks great.” It was nice to see someone so proud of something. Derek couldn’t help but smile.

 

“Yeah okay, Stiles I’ll be there in a minute. I actually—“ Isaac paused and looked nervously at Derek. “I came here to talk to Derek about something. So, if you could give us a minute.”

 

Those were famous last words if he’d ever heard them. Derek wanted to jet out the back door. Disappear and never come back. More often than not when people wanted to talk to Derek it didn't have to do with him, it had to do with his sisters, and in Isaac's case, he was sure that it was going to be more of the same.

 

Derek cleared his throat and motioned for Isaac to follow him. “Stiles can you just keep an eye on the register for a minute. I’m sure this isn’t going to take long.”

 

“Yeah, sure no problemo,” Stiles answered as he went back to his painting. Of course, that didn’t last long because as soon as he picked up his brush, the bell rang over the door. Instead of making a beeline for the books though the woman walked over towards Stiles’ art.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

“Is all of this your work?” It was a fair question since there were quite a few pieces and Stiles was working on one now.

 

“Yep, all mine. I’ve been painting since I was a kid but—obviously none of these are from when I was a kid. I mean these are all from after graduation.” Stiles paused running his hand over his neck. “From college, not high school. I did go to college for this.”

 

The woman couldn’t help but smile. Her eyes moved over each painting carefully. “You either just found a new reason to paint or lost your old one. Either way, your new stuff is beautiful. This painting here—“ Pointing to one that was simple. A street light playing off pavement and grass she cleared her throat. “How much are you asking for this?”

 

Stiles didn’t think anyone would ever be interested in that painting. It was just something he’d seen the night Derek drove him home the first time. He doubted anyone would understand how his mind worked and how sentimental that particular painting was. “Oh uh—I never thought anyone would be interested in that. It’s more of a display piece. I painted that recently, but it has a lot of sentimental value.”

 

The woman's smile slipped just a little as she nodded her head. “Well, clearly it’s an important night for you. How about you point me to what’s for sale and I’ll look and see if there’s anything I’m interested in.” The woman—Jennifer considered offering Stiles an enormous amount of money for his painting, just to see if he would part with it. 

 

Stiles motioned to everything else. “Except for that painting, everything is for sale. Prices are listed in the catalog on that stand.” Pointing to the podium that Stiles was using to keep his prices in he glanced back to Derek and Isaac.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

“Isaac you’re asking my permission to date Cora. Have you figured out yet that that’s probably the last thing you should be doing? Cora doesn’t care what I think. Not to mention if she finds out you did something like this she’s not going to be happy with either one of us.” Derek’s arms rested across his chest. His face was serious even if in the back of his mind he found some humor in the conversation they were having.

 

Isaac stood up straight and nodded his head. “I know she wouldn’t be happy but—I think that it would be pretty disrespectful to you and Laura if I didn’t talk to you two first. _OR—_ at least you. Laura is—scary.”

 

Laura scary… Laura. Derek wanted to point out that he could if he wanted easily break Isaac in half but, well, that wasn’t necessary. Instead, he just laughed. “Laura isn’t scary she’s just overbearing. But—fine if it’s that important to you just make sure that neither her or Cora find out about this conversation.”

 

Derek’s eyes kept moving to Stiles standing in the back. He was talking and seemed to be doing okay. Plus, that was his art, and he knew it better than anyone. “Go check out Stiles stuff now before he explodes. I need to get back to work.” Waving Isaac off Derek sat back down at his computer and opened it back up. He was just about to plug his headphones back into his ears when he heard someone clear their throat. Derek stood quickly when he noticed the brunette standing at the register. “Was there something I could help you with?” This was always something that Derek hated—customers that flipped between the book and art areas.

 

“Yes actually I was looking for a reference book for my class and since the guy in the back said he’s not all that familiar with the books I thought that I’d ask you.” Her smile was large but didn’t reach her eyes and Derek couldn’t help but wonder if she was up to something.

 

“Sure, yeah what were you looking for?” Derek closed his laptop yet again and walked around the counter. He paused as he reached the reference section. “You can leave that painting by the register no one will bother it.” Derek stated before he turned his back on her and made his way to the proper section. Coming to a stop, Derek waited for a moment and when the woman—she hadn’t given her name. “Um—I’m sorry my name’s Derek this is my store. What book were you looking for?”

 

“Jennifer” The woman answered holding out her hand. “And it’s a reference book about butterflies. I believe it’s Strokes Butterfly Handbook— “

 

Derek smiled “Stokes Butterfly Book. I know we don’t have that in stock but I can order it for you, and it’ll be here in a day or two. We do have a Complete Book of North American Butterflies if you’re interested in that.” It was a different option that Derek thought he would offer.

 

“Oh great yes if you could order that I’d appreciate it. I have the other book honestly, and I’m looking to have a little variety.”

 

Nodding Derek walked back towards the counter and typed a couple of things into the bookstore computer and took Jennifer’s name and phone number. “You're all set, you’ll get a call as soon as the book’s delivered.”

 

Jennifer paid for her book and painting. Derek was surprised when he saw how much the painting was going to cost but he was happy that Stiles sold something. “See you in a few days.” Waving Jennifer walked out the door.

 

          ...xxxXXXXXXXxxx…

 

Stiles was immediately hopping up and down. Isaac had just walked out the door to go pick Cora up from school and made some comment about how she was going to open the bookstore the next morning. Derek was relieved because that meant that he got to sleep in which he desperately needed. “So—Cora’s opening tomorrow, I just sold a painting, and I was thinking how about you let me buy you dinner and we get a couple of drinks?”

 

That sounded like a bad idea, but then again Derek was never one that followed through with good ideas. “How about we pay for our own dinner and then grab a six pack and hang out at my loft?” Social situations weren’t Derek’s strong suit, and if he was going to be hanging out with Stiles, he’d rather not have to deal with a bunch of drunks as well.

 

“It’s a deal. But, I’m buying dinner.” Stiles answered checking the time. “Oh and look it's time to lock up right now.”

 

Derek shook his head as he closed the door and shut everything down. He balanced the register and set up a deposit for the next morning. Derek packed away his laptop and looked up at Stiles who had been standing there in relative silence. “Did you need to say something before we leave because you’ve never been this quiet?”

 

Stiles rolled his shoulders and sighed. “I’m sorry about the computer thing. I didn’t—I didn’t mean to snoop over your shoulder, and if it makes you feel any better I didn’t see anything that you were typing. I didn’t read it.”

 

If he could have breathed a sigh of relief without it being obvious, Derek would have. Instead, he just nodded his head. “It’s okay it’s just—I write a lot of things, and I don’t like people seeing them until they’re done.”

 

That was the biggest explanation Stiles was going to get from Derek. Sliding his jacket over his shoulders, Derek raised one of his brows at Stiles. “You coming or what?”

 

“Shit—yeah yeah I’m coming. Let’s go. I was thinking Thai. Or did you want something else?” Stiles wasn’t all that picky, but he knew Derek was so he was giving the older man the option.

 

“Thai’s fine.” Derek commented unlocking the doors to his car and getting into the driver’s seat. “Did you want carry out or---“

 

Stiles hadn’t considered the fact that if he was going to have drinks with Derek at his loft, they could just get carry out. That sounded like a good plan. “Carry out. Then we could watch a movie or something if you feel like it.”

 

Derek wanted to point out that this was **NOT** a date but, he didn’t think that he needed to. Besides, why would Stiles even consider thinking about this in terms of, a date anyways? “Sure that’s fine. Movie and dinner works—plus drinks are better when you don’t have to worry about driving.” Of course, Stiles still needed to get home, but that was something that the two could deal with later. The loud grumble that could be heard through the car clued Derek into the fact that it was time to get moving.  

 

The engine roared to life, and Derek put the car in gear. The (in Derek’s humble opinion) best Thai food in town wasn’t far from Turn the Page, and once on the road Derek just automatically drove there. It was where he always went. As a matter of fact, a couple of the waitresses knew him by name and had his order down. Normally he was there alone or with his sisters, but never with someone else.

 

As he pulled into the parking lot, Derek realized that Stiles had been rambling nonstop the entire drive. Glancing over Derek smiled halfheartedly, and Stiles only shook his head. “Man I know you weren’t listening. I could tell the minute you started driving you were somewhere else, so I was just talking to fill the space.”

 

Relief was apparent on Derek’s face, and as he got out of the car and locked the door, he stopped at the front waiting for Stiles. “So, what do you normally get? I know when we were repainting and got Thai I didn’t pay much attention to what everyone was eating.” Derek had slowed his pace so that he was walking next to the other male and not in front of him.

 

“Probably something incredibly boring to you. Laura said you always try something new, but then get something that you know you like just in case. I’m not that adventurous. I like pad thai, and that’s that. Chicken sometimes beef just never shrimp.” Stiles could feel himself start to ramble a little and was trying to stop. “I guess I should probably try to expand my horizons, but I always worry that I won’t like what I’m ordering so if I do that I’ll waste money.” And the truth was that Stiles didn’t have a ton of money to go throwing around, so the idea of wasting money and food never sat well with him.

 

“Well, you’re in luck because I always try new things and you’ll just have to try some of whatever I get then. I’ll just get it a little less spicy than usual. You get things with almost no spice right?” Derek was snorting now because he was the exact opposite. Laura had tried to steal something from Derek’s plate once and ended up feeling so sick afterward that he just simply told her that it served her right since she tried to steal his food.

 

As soon as they walked through the door, Derek was greeted with _'Where have you been? Why haven't you been here in so long?'_ And the real kicker they didn’t know he was dating someone again. His eyes just about fell out of his skull as he shook his head at the waitress as she kept talking. Derek, of course, refused to look at Stiles. Instead, he ordered his food to go and then waited, for Stiles to order his.

 

While the two of them waited Derek sat down in a chair just staring that the ground. “I wasn’t dating anyone before. I had a friend that I used to come here with after college but, it wasn’t like we were together or anything like that. She moved away a few years ago. I don’t—I haven’t—I mean it doesn’t matter okay?”

 

Stiles watched the entire interaction and waited for the waitress to walk away. No, he didn’t expect an explanation. Hell, he didn’t even want one. Derek didn’t owe him any of that, to be honest. “You’re right it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to tell me anything. We work together, and this is the first time we’ve ever hung out outside the store. I’m pretty sure that means your personal life can stay just that. So can your dating life.” 

 

Waving off further comment Stiles fell into silence. He would have been lying if he stated that he wasn’t curious what had Derek wound so tight that he wouldn’t even talk about whatever it was the waitress had started on but, he wasn’t going to push his luck and ruin the small amount of progress they’d made.

 

When the order was produced Stiles tried to pay and was quickly denied by Derek who paid and carried everything out the door to the car. “I’m sorry by the way. I just, there are a few things that I don’t like talking about and lack of relationships is one of them.” Laura, on the other hand, was always willing to blab about Derek and his lack of significant other—she hated seeing Derek alone, and he was pretty sure she was trying to fix that. Not that Derek was that receptive.

 

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

 

The loft was quiet and dark by the time they got there, and Derek blindly flipped one of the switches on the wall that illuminated the entry. “It’s not much, but it’s mine. Which means no sisters.” He muttered the last part under his breath because the truth was that he loved his loft and his sisters but growing up with them gave Derek a damn good reason to live on his own.

 

His kitchen was a smaller galley style kitchen. It was clean and organized. Stiles followed him and took the room in he couldn’t help but think that it looked like the type of kitchen that someone that cooked would have. Which made him wonder how much cooking Derek did on a normal basis. “Do you cook or are you just one of those people that like the best of everything?” The question slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. Nice—

 

Derek looked around and smiled. “Usually I do cook. Did you ever notice that half the time I don’t order out for lunch? It’s because I usually cook after work and then save stuff for the next day. Healthier than take out all the time.” Out of all the Hale siblings, Derek was the best cook it just wasn’t something that he cared to broadcast to everyone. Even Laura was decent enough to keep that a secret. “So, what did you want to drink?”

 

“Beer works.” Stiles answered as he swayed on his heels waiting for Derek to at least give him something to do before he got too bored and dove into a million and one questions.

 

“Fridge is right there.” Derek answered pointing over his shoulder. “Make yourself useful.” The smile on his face was evident while he reached up and got a couple of plates from the cupboard. “I’ll take one too.” Once the plates were on the counter and Derek had opened the bags up and figured out which food belonged to who he slid one of the ‘to try’ dishes over to Stiles. “So, are you going to try something new or chicken out?”

 

Now that he was being called out, of course, he couldn’t chicken out even if Stiles thought whatever was in that takeout container looked like roadkill. “I’m not chickening out. I was letting you get dibs since you bought dinner.”

 

Derek could smell that line of lies from a million miles away and just nodded his head. “Oh, I’ve got some so feel free.” Sliding the container closer to Stiles he even had to admit to himself that this was one thing that he would probably end up putting a big black line through on his menu. Even the smell was starting to make his own stomach turn. Derek picked his plate up and walked towards the living room. “Come on let’s find something to watch on Netflix.” Before he got too far, Derek stretched back and grabbed both beers then continued towards his couch.

 

Stiles was quickly on his heels after adding probably the smallest amount of food to his plate. He went to grab his beer but realized that Derek already grabbed it. “Hey, thanks for grabbing my beer. I’m pretty sure that I could carry it by myself. I’m not exactly a klutz.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Stiles wanted to take them back.

 

Brows shooting up Derek smiled. “I’ve seen you move around, and except when you’re painting you have the grace of a giraffe.” That was giving Stiles some credit too.

 

Plopping unceremoniously next to Derek Stiles put the plate on the table that was in front of the two of them. “So—this stuff.” Poking his fork into what he swore just moved Stiles made a face. “How was it?” He had seen Derek take a bite and then proceed to push the rest of it over into a pile that looked like it was something that he wouldn’t be eating the rest of.

 

“Just—leave it. Not that great don’t want to ruin the rest of your food.” Derek answered nose wrinkling as he reached for his beer and took a swig trying to clear the remnants of that bite from his palate. “Yeah, that was bad. Won’t be trying that again.” He muttered under his breath.

 

Stiles had picked up the remote and started flicking through things on Netflix. Eventually, he decided that they would watch some horror movie that Derek didn’t know if he had any interest in watching, but they would probably end up talking through most of it anyway. At least Derek hoped that’s what they did—horror wasn’t his favorite genre.

 

It didn’t take long though for the two to finish eating, and after about three beers each they both fell silent watching the movie. Thankfully it was campy and not Cabin in the Woods which Laura had insisted Derek watch. After that, he had nightmares for a week. Once the movie was over Derek glanced at his watch. It was late—almost midnight and Derek was in no shape to drive especially the sheriff's kid. “Uh—look I don’t know what you want to do if you want to sleep on the couch here or what, but I think that me driving the sheriff’s kid home is not a good idea.”

 

Stiles immediately got huffy. “First of all, I’m not a kid. I’m an adult that can legally drink. Second of all just because the sheriff is my dad doesn’t mean that every time you get the chance I need you pointing that out. I’ve lived with that my whole life, and it’s annoying. Third—I’ll sleep on the couch. My dad would shoot you if you were driving his kid around drunk.” A faint smirk tugged at his lips after he finished his little rant.

 

Derek rolled his eyes and got up to grab a couple blankets and pillows. “I’ll take you home in the morning so that you can change your clothes. Don't want to be at the store smelling like you do.” The truth was—he didn’t smell bad Derek just needed something to pick on him about.

 

“Yeah yeah, are you sure you’re going to be able to sleep by yourself Der? Laura told me about Cabin in the Woods. The nightmares…” Stiles had this mischievous look on his face, and Derek just turned around and walked towards his bedroom.

 

“I’m sure I’ll sleep just fine. Is this your way of manipulating the situation, so you don’t have to sleep alone in a strange place? Because if you’re worried, you can sleep in my room. I’ve got a huge bed there’s plenty of room.” Derek didn’t think in a million years he’d hear footsteps behind him, but before he had a chance to close his door, he heard the sound of feet on the wood floor.

 

Ah hell what did he get himself into--?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions, Comments, and Kudos are always much appreciated. Honestly, they give me life.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura likes to meddle
> 
> Family drama and Stiles putting the moves on Derek. None of this ends the way it's supposed to.

It wasn’t a big deal working together every single day. Sure Derek wasn’t used to spending that much time with one person. In a way, it was almost as bad as being married. At least he had to believe it—of course thinking that something was ‘almost as bad as being married’ was probably a horrible mindset. However, that was the stance that Derek took, and he was keeping it. The first time he brought that up to Laura though she rolled her eyes. Of course, that was quickly followed by a million questions and innuendos that Derek didn’t want to answer. ‘What about all that other married couple stuff Der—Is that what’s going on in the backroom so late on Fridays?’ The question was something like that because the truth was that Derek didn’t answer and barely heard the last part because he was too busy hanging up before he turned purple. Reason number 2056 why he didn’t tell Laura things.

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

“Derek, can you grab that box of brushes that are on the top shelf in the storage room?” Stiles was standing by some painting he was working on and apparently in no shape to be moving past all the books that Derek hoped people would buy. He’d barely caught the question so enthralled in his typing but, his name managed to catch Derek’s attention.

“Yeah yeah give me a second would ya?” He asked finishing the paragraph he was in the middle of writing. The last thing he wanted was to get up and lose his thought all over a bunch of paint brushes.

(Nothing ever seemed quite as bright as when he was around. The birds always sang louder—the sun brighter.) And Derek promptly wanted to gag himself with that line. He was pretty sure that the coffee he’d just drank was starting to revolt in his stomach.

Derek shoved the chair back and closed his laptop to stalk to the back of the store and retrieve the paint brushes Stiles asked Derek to get for him.

When Derek returned supplies in hand, he walked over to Stiles and handed them to him.

“Here—and uh… try not to make too big a mess.” Derek motions to a glob of paint on the floor just beyond the drop cloth that Stiles kept on the ground to contain his paint while working.

Looking down Stiles sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to do that. I got sidetracked while I was working on this” He motioned to the canvas which Derek pointedly refused to glance towards. It was just one thing that he didn’t do. After the paintings were done was one thing but works in progress he never peaked at. “and sometimes when I’m in my groove… my element… whatever you want to call it I lose track of things like paint globs.”

Derek snorted as he turned to walk away. The afternoon was slow, and he had been in a good flow with his writing before being beckoned by Stiles. “I’m not calling anything your groove Stiles or your element—It’s a little too weird.” The words were barely audible over the music that was again playing while Stiles was back to humming. Derek had no clue what the song was but, he didn’t care. Derek's headphone were back in his ears; chair angled so he could see the door as he began to type away. That was how the two spent the majority of their days.

Derek’s publisher called and said she liked the rough draft of his last book and wanted him to work on that some more although Derek tried to change her mind. The novel was a lot darker than what he’d been working on lately, and the truth was he wasn’t sure he’d be able to finish it.

He was losing steam—Rather than flat out decline, Derek stated he’d work on it and hung up.

The rest of the afternoon Derek was unusually quiet. After not saying a word or writing for a couple of hours Stiles put his paint brushes down and wiped his hands off with a cloth he kept next to his canvas. “Dude, what’s wrong? You’re just staring at nothing—it’s weird.”

Derek shrugged his shoulders and grunted a noncommittal answer. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say and if he wanted to even talk about what was going on in the first place but as

Stiles walked across the store it was pretty clear that Derek wasn’t going to get away without saying something. “That call was from my publisher, and she wants me to work on a book I started a while ago, and I’m just not sure that I can. It was…” Derek paused looking up at Stiles as he sat down in a chair across from Derek and waited for him to continue. “It was from a long time ago, and I’m not writing things that dark anymore.”

Stiles smiled a little and nodded. “Yeah, I imagine it’s probably pretty hard to do something like that. Did you consider changing the story up a little and make it more like what you’re writing now? Maybe they’ll like that, and it’ll be easier for you to write.”

Derek shook his head. “Can’t--- it’ll be too hard, and I’ve got almost an entire half a novel written now, so I don’t want to change to an entirely different book. Besides—you just don’t do that. It would be like changing a painting mid work.”

Scrunching his nose in thought, Stiles snorted in reply. “Yeah I suppose you can’t make a lily out of a cat can you?”

“Exactly” Derek answered with a nod as the buzzer above the door went off. The two men looked over and saw Laura enter the building, and Stiles stood up to greet her.

Laura walked up to the counter smiling at Stiles. “Just the man I wanted to see. Stiles, I was looking for a new painting for the house. Oh and Derek—Cora’s going to be home this weekend so Sunday-- dinner.”

Stiles almost tripped over his own feet, and he bound out from behind the counter to lead Laura to his _‘studio.'_ Derek couldn’t help but shake his head laughing at the two as they walked away. He then opened his phone and added dinner to Sunday’s busy schedule of **_NOTHING—_**

Derek tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that Laura and Stiles got along like two long lost best friends. If Laura weren't always hinting around about the two of them dating, Derek would probably be more than a little jealous of his sister. As it stood, he still couldn’t help but grumble a little bit under his breath while the two chatted away over paintings.

Shaking his head, Derek opened his laptop and checked emails. There was one from his publisher outlining the conversation the two had previously and Derek debated just emailing her and telling her that it wasn’t possible. That book wasn’t something that he’d be able to write. Instead, he decided that he’d ignore it for now.

“Derek I’m going to buy these two paintings from Stiles. Do you think that you can bring them over after you close the store tonight?” Laura wasn’t giving him a choice in the matter, and Derek knew it. There never was a choice with her.

“Well, I was going to take Stiles home but, I can after I---“ He was cut off mid-sentence though when Laura spoke up.

“Nonsense I want him to come too I’d like his input on where to hang them. They are after all his paintings.” The glimmer in her eyes made Derek want to hide under the counter, but instead, he sighed.

After ringing up the paintings and giving her total Derek waited for Laura to pull out a couple of bills to pay for the paintings. Stiles had apparently cut her a deal on them since Derek knew how much they cost and he knew that wasn’t nearly enough. “I’ll see you two later tonight.” Laura waved walking out the door.

           ...oooOOOOOOooo…

“Derek you know you don’t have to take me with you. I can go to my dad’s and get a car and follow you if it would make things easier.” Stiles was sitting in the same chair he was in before Laura had come in.

“No, it’s fine. I don’t mind plus, if I take too long, she’s going to start being an annoying big sister.” Derek muttered the last part and closed his laptop once again.

“Alright but, I don’t want you to feel like you have to let me tag along with you.”

Derek smiled as he glanced across the table where the two were seated. “Don’t worry about it. I’m okay with you tagging along with me.” That sounded a lot cheesier than he’d intended and judging by that goofy smile on Stiles’ face he’d caught it too.

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

When the store closed for the night, Stiles helped Derek load the paintings into his car. Then the two were off to Laura’s. Derek was oddly quiet which Stiles noticed but didn't want to question. Between going to Laura’s and the whole deal with the book Derek was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Not that it was anything that he needed to bother anyone with it was just a matter of trying to figure out how to break the news to his publisher. Maybe having a new idea before he bothered to deny flat out the request was a better idea. Although lately, Derek would be lying if he said that his writing was exactly like the things he’d been writing before.

Then there was Laura—always looking for an excuse to throw Stiles and him alone. It was starting to get daunting. The silence carried on until Derek pulled into the driveway and Derek felt immediately guilty. “Shit I’m sorry I kind of lost myself.”

Stiles glanced over and smiled with a shrug. Of course, it bothered him just a little, but he tried not to say too much. “Let’s get these paintings in so we can get them hung up. It’s getting late.”

Derek glanced at his watch as he opened the car door and snorted. It wasn’t late, but apparently, his silence had bothered Stiles more than Derek realized. Pulling the seat forward Derek slid the paintings out and started walking towards Laura's house. Laura was already standing on the porch with her arms crossed waiting for the two of them to come in. “Took you two long enough.”

Stiles just walked up the stairs and shrugged. “Point the way and let’s get this done. I’ve got to get home.”

Her eyes met Derek’s with a questioning look, and he shrugged. Thankfully the paintings covered up his slightly confused face.

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

“How come it took two hours Derek?” Stiles was a little beyond exasperated. Not with Derek but in general and Derek well, he was just done with the day.

“We are talking about my sister. Do you realize that this is the first time that she’s bought anything like this since our parents’ died? It’s kind of a big deal.” No, it wasn’t an excuse but, Derek could understand why Laura was careful where she hung new artwork up.

Stiles glanced over at Derek and frowned. “I’m--- I didn’t realize that. If I had known, I wouldn’t have complained. I’m starving though.”

“Don’t be sorry. You didn’t know Do you want to stop at the diner before you go home and get something to eat? I mean it’s up to you…” Derek shrugged. He knew that he hadn’t been in the most talkative moods during the day but, he also wasn’t sure that he was quite ready to be alone or talk about it.

“Nah--- it’s been a long day. I’m ready to get home and crash.” Stiles smiled though. “Maybe tomorrow if you don’t have plans.”

Derek nodded and continued towards Stiles’ house to drop him off. Once outside he stopped at the curb and put his car in park. “Hey—I’m sorry about the silent treatment earlier. Just trying to hash out what to say to my publisher and it’s not exactly something that I can ‘talk’ through.”

Opening the door to Derek’s car Stiles shook his head. “No reason to apologize. You’re allowed to be a crab. Don’t have to answer to me.”

Except in some ways, Derek felt like he did just a little. Working day in and day out in such a small space with the guy.

“See ya tomorrow Der.”

  
Sunday rolled around, and Derek would have been lying if he said that he wasn’t excited to see Cora. It had been too long. At least it felt like it to him. A text here and there just wasn’t good enough. Yeah he understood she was busy—he did the whole college thing too but, it didn’t change the fact that she was the buffer between Laura and him when the two started to butt heads. Kinda like now. It felt like of late the two were butting heads more and more often.

“Laura **NO** you are not inviting Stiles to dinner.” Derek was practically growling into the phone. He was still sitting on the couch in sweats, and maybe he should have been dressed a couple of hours ago but, this was the one day a week that he didn’t go into Turn the Page until later than the crack of dawn. “I’m serious Laura I see the guy every day of the week as it is. **WHY** the hell would you insist on inviting him to family dinner?”

The other end of the phone was unusually quiet, and Derek almost thought that maybe she’d hung up until he heard a sigh. “Oh, I don’t know Der-bear because I thought maybe the two of you were getting along.” **_(_** _That was Laura code for she was hoping that her match making had gone as planned **)**_

That was a loaded statement, getting along in Laura’s mind meant that they were screwing and not fighting. In Derek’s mind, it meant that he could make it through a week without wanting to rip the guy’s head off. Either way, he wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot pole. Not now—or ever. They worked together, and he had morals, standards… he had something okay? Right now that something was simply screaming that he shouldn’t be attempting to screw around with the sheriff’s son. **_(_** _It didn’t matter that they were both adults_ ** _)_**

“Look, Laura, I’ve got to go. I need to get ready to head to work, and then I’ll be over for dinner. NO STILES I’m serious.” Derek wasn’t trying to be a jerk, but he missed Cora and wanted to visit his sister. The last thing he wanted was to feel like work was following him everywhere.

“Der—I uh… I kinda already asked him to come.” Laura winced to herself before hanging up quickly, so she didn’t have to hear the complaints from Derek. She almost cringed hearing the high pitched shout that started to come through the phone right as the call was disconnected.

Wasn’t that just like Laura? Sticking her nose so far in where it didn’t belong that Derek didn’t even want to bother to go to dinner.

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

Sundays were normally pretty slow which meant that Derek spent them rotating and restocking shelves. It was the easiest day to do that since he could have shelves empty for new arrivals and get things prepared for new orders on Monday. It was a system that he’d worked out when he first opened a couple of years ago, and it hadn’t failed him yet.

When he walked in Scott and Isaac were there visiting with Stiles who was painting something and talking animatedly about the night before. Derek nodded his head and instead of interrupting then began moving books around. The buzzer over the door went off, and when Derek stepped out from behind the shelf, he couldn’t help but smile.“Hey, I figured I wouldn’t see you til tonight.”

Cora was standing there looking slightly unimpressed. “Yeah well, Laura told me I should probably come up here and smooth things over with you.”

Derek shook his head trying to get Cora to understand that he hadn’t said anything to Stiles about what Laura had done. He wasn’t going to either it wasn’t his fault. The issue was with Laura not him. “You don’t have anything to smooth over with me. It’s fine no big deal.”

Cora narrowed her eyes and glanced over towards Stiles’ paintings where she spotted Scott and Isaac. “Suit yourself. I’ll be over there.”

Of course—Cora probably wasn’t planning to come and talk to Derek in the first place but since Isaac was here an attempt at smoothing things over was probably worthwhile.

**[msg: laur]** don’t send your sister to do your dirty work.  
 **[msg: der]** I'm insulted. utterly insulted.  
 **[msg: laur]** she just wanted to visit Isaac right?  
 **[msg: der]** I know nothing

Eventually, Scott left, Isaac and Cora following suit not long after. “See ya for dinner guys,” Cora called over her shoulder.

Derek looked past the bookshelf he had to work on and just glared at her before ducking back behind it to replace the last book. He hadn’t heard Stiles walking down the aisle, so when he turned around to see him standing there, Derek jumped. “Jesus Stiles you can’t do shit like that. You’ll give someone a heart attack.”

Stiles immediately upon seeing Derek jump like someone who had just seen a ghost started laughing and couldn’t stop. “OH MY GOD you should have just seen yourself. You jumped like--- no really Derek. That was the funniest thing I think I’ve seen in a long time.” Barely able to catch his breath Stiles was almost doubled over.

Scowling Derek turned the other way and walked towards the door to switch the sign to closed. “I’m glad that I amuse you.” Which wasn’t true at all but, he could lie if he wanted to. The truth was that he was on edge and the idea of sitting through dinner with Laura while she made whatever innuendos she decided where funny just didn’t seem all that appealing. “Did you want to ride with me to Laura’s or were you going to drive yourself?” Derek hadn’t seen if Stiles drove himself to the store or not.

“Well, I rode with Isaac this morning since we kind of pulled an all-nighter. So, if you don’t mind me riding along that would be awesome.” Stiles shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“Fine let’s go” Derek grabbed his keys and headed for the door.

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

The truth if Derek was honest with himself was that he did like Stiles. How exactly he wasn’t quite sure. There was that part of him that was glad that he was around every day. It was nice—he made Derek laugh and kept him company when he didn’t want to write. Stiles happened to be smart and kind of funny. **_BUT—_** all of that aside Derek was scared to death of him. Stiles made him feel vulnerable in a way that he hadn’t felt in years and maybe perhaps Laura could tell, and that’s why she kept pushing. Leave it to his older sister to lead Derek into a situation where he was completely and totally out of his element.

“Dude are you going to do the whole silent thing _AGAIN_ today because seriously if that’s the case, I’d rather just go home.” Stiles sounded slightly annoyed by Derek’s lack of conversation up until this point.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk but, it wasn’t his strong suit. Actual interactions had always been something he didn’t excel in. “Hey, I’m sorry I just never have been a big talker in case you didn’t know.” Derek was certain that Stiles was aware of the fact that he wasn't a big talker. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Conversations didn’t have to be that hard but, the longer the two were stuck in the car together and the longer the silence dragged on, the more uncomfortable Stiles became. He glanced over at Derek a couple of times without saying anything. Finally, he reached out and flipped on the radio to at least give him something to listen to besides his thoughts telling him that all of this was just stupid. (He did have reasons for showing up at dinners and going everywhere he could with Derek)

Breaking the silence after that wasn’t easy but Derek finally was the one that managed to do it. “You do realize what Laura’s doing right? I mean why she keeps inviting you to these things. Why she asked you if you wanted to rent the space?” It was time that the two of them clear this up before it got carried out for too long.

Stiles paused and turned down the radio. His eyes flicked over to Derek. He knew what Laura had told him but, to be honest, he wasn’t sure what Derek knew. The last thing he wanted was to be the one to tell him WHY Laura was doing all of this. (it had nothing to do with Laura and everything to do with Stiles, but he couldn’t tell Derek that) “I… uh… well, I don’t know really. I mean she does seem to be a little set on making sure that we spend a lot of time together.” Smooth Stilinski—

Cringing just at his words Derek sighed. “Yeah, you could say that. I’m pretty sure that she’s making it her mission to see that we at least attempt the whole dating thing—not that she could honestly tell me when the last time I dated anyone was.” _**(** over three years ago but, who the hell was counting? **)**_

“Well, Derek if that’s the case… Wait, you haven’t dated in a long time? How is that even possible?” Stiles was pretty sure that looking like Derek did made it a crime, not to date. **_(_** _One simply did not keep things like that locked away_ ** _)_** “I mean… it’s not my business but, can’t be from lack of opportunities.”

That was the truth. Derek had plenty of chances. Nothing ever felt right or safe. Not that he needed someone to protect him but, bad relationships could ruin people. “Doesn’t matter it’s not something I want to talk about right now. Besides—why would anyone honestly care when the last time I dated was?”

Turning into the driveway Derek parked next to Isaac’s car and huffed. “Clearly, there’s no such thing as a family dinner anymore.” He hadn’t meant for it to sound the way it did but, in a way, he missed the days when it was just the three of them. For so long that was all they had. (Well, aside from Peter when he was in town though that wasn’t often)

“You know words hurt dude.” Stiles sat in the seat looking slightly put out. “Besides it’s not like the whole Isaac and Cora thing is new. They’ve been dating for almost a year. Cora just didn’t want you to know because you’d pull your growly over protective big brother crap and she hates that.” As soon as he stopped talking Stiles realized that he’d said too much. Derek had this look of hurt on his face that the other man had never seen before.

“It’s time to go in.” Derek pulled the keys from the ignition and got out of the car. Instead of his usual happy and relaxed face that he wore to most Sunday dinners he now had a scowl that didn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

‘Shit’ Stiles muttered under his breath before he got out of the car and ran to catch up with Derek. “Derek wait… wait. Don’t, don’t say anything to Cora because she may not have wanted you to know that and I just… I shouldn’t have said anything. I was being a jerk.”

Derek’s eyes scanned over Stiles before he walked up the steps and into the house. Laura was already standing there a big smile on her face. “Hey, you two! I wondered where you got off too.” She sounded like she was starting in on teasing and Derek simply looked at her with a look that read ‘not now, ’ and she stopped.

Glancing between the two Stiles was pale and immediately disappeared into the house to hunt down Cora and Isaac. (someone had to tell her that Derek knew all about her and Isaac dating for as long as they have been)

          ...oooOOOOOOooo…

“What’s going on Der?” Laura patted his shoulder then guided him into the kitchen where she was working on dinner.

He followed without even thinking about it. No words came out of his mouth as he leaned against the counter. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the floor; there was a nick in the tile that he’d caused when he was 13 years old. For some reason, his parents had never fixed it even though they were meticulous about their home.

“Derek if you didn’t want him to come to dinner you could have just asked him to stay home I’m sure he would have understood.” Laura was rambling, and Derek hadn’t heard most of it.

“Huh—oh no I’m not even thinking about Stiles.” Not exactly anyway. “How long have you known about Cora and Isaac?” His eyes fixed on Laura, and immediately Derek knew. He could see the way her jaw ticked. The way she smiled nervously. If he didn’t know better Derek would think that his sister was going to try and lie her way out of this.

“Cora and Isaac—What about them?”

Shaking his head, Derek huffed in frustration. “Do me a favor and tell Stiles to catch a ride home with Isaac. I can’t be here right now.” Pushing off the counter and walking out of the kitchen Derek was heading towards the door. There was no way he wanted to stay there when his sister (the one that knew how hard it was for him to trust anyone) just wanted to lie to him. Then there was Cora—she didn’t even want him to be the typical older brother. That was the ONE thing that Derek thought he was always good at.

Pulling the front door, open Derek walked out without saying another word. He didn’t look back. (this was something that called for a cooling off period) Derek was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the steps coming up behind him. It wasn’t until the hand was on his shoulder that he stopped and turned around.

“Leaving without me?” Stiles looked like he was a little scared to even be talking to Derek.

“Why don’t you just go back in and have dinner? Have Isaac drive you home Stiles. I just need to leave. It’s for the best right now.” And he felt like it was.

“I don’t think so Der-bear” Yeah he knew that would just annoy Derek but, he didn’t care. “I know what happened—well, kinda and I don’t think that you need to be leaving by yourself.”

“Fine—get in the car.” Derek jerked his head towards the car. “I’m capable of taking care of myself though you know?”

“I know, but sometimes you shouldn’t have too.”

Derek drove back towards town. He was again way too quiet but, Stiles didn’t push him to talk. It wasn’t until they got near the store and Derek’s apartment that he finally spoke up. “How about some pizza, beer, and a movie?”

He wanted to be alone—to wallow in his own self-pity. But, it wasn’t going to happen clearly. Not that Derek was always one of THOSE kinds of people. His phone had already rang five times all of which had been ignored. The voicemails could wait until he was feeling better.

“Pizza and beer.” Derek nodded his head. “We can head back to my place if you want.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Stiles agreed.

Parking his car Derek turned off the engine and walked towards the building. “I think I’ll just have it delivered today. Not feeling like running around all over the place.” Clicking on his phone to call the pizza delivery number Derek saw some text messages.

**[msg: der]** hey I didn’t mean to avoid the question. was sworn to secrecy.  
 **[msg: stupid big brother]** we need to talk  
 **[msg: stupid big brother],** and if you don’t call me, then I'm going to just stop by your place.  
 **[msg: der]** look der I'm sorry okay?

Derek didn’t answer the messages and instead after ordering and paying with his credit card simply shut his phone off. “Okay pizza will be here in about thirty minutes.” Plopping on the couch, Derek laid his head on the back. This was the longest day he’d had in a long time.

“I uh—Laura called me. I told her that you were okay. Didn’t say what was going on just that you were okay.”

Grumbling under his breath Derek got up off the couch and walked into the kitchen. “It’s a damn good thing that I’m not the one trying to keep things from my family for a year. I’d fail in five god damn minutes.”

Stiles couldn’t help but flinch. Derek was right for being annoyed at him for checking in with Laura. He had no right. It wasn’t like Derek was constantly calling his father and letting him know what Stiles was up too. “Hey okay, yeah I’m sorry that was pretty stupid of me, and I didn’t have a right. I won’t… look I’ll uh, mind my own business from now on okay? If you want, I could have my dad come and get me. I’m sure me being here isn’t the most exciting thing on the planet.”

Truthfully, it was nice. Except for the whole checking in with Laura thing Derek didn’t mind having Stiles around. He certainly didn’t want him to leave. Reaching into the fridge to grab a couple of beers he opened them and handed one the other man before sitting back down on the couch. “Nah, I don’t mind you being around most of the time. You know when you aren’t checking in with my sister for me.”

“Yeah, I deserved that.” Laughing a little before taking a sip from his beer Stiles glanced at Derek. “I’m sorry about all this. I should have just said I was going to go home. This is all my fault really if you want to know the truth.”

Though Derek didn’t see how this was **ALL** Stiles’ fault, he listened to him talk. Apparently, family turmoil gave him a case of conscience. “I’m—What are you talking about?”

Stiles sighed. “Look—I was the one that begged Laura to talk you into letting me rent that space. I think that everything she’s done is kind of because I let it slip a while ago that I had a huge thing for you when I was younger. You know when you were way unattainable, and I was a lot more spazzy than I am now.” (that wasn’t saying much at the moment with the way his arms were flailing as he spoke)

Blinking Derek took a sip of his beer. He opened his mouth to speak but, the knock on the door caused him to jerk out of his thought and jump up to answer it.

‘Damn pizza delivery dude’ Stiles was cursing the man under his breath even though he was starving. For the first time since the two of them had started working together, it felt like maybe they were getting somewhere and it just was interrupted by the pizza guy. That was Stiles’ luck though.

“Here,” Derek muttered handing a plate to Stiles with a couple of pieces of pizza on it. He wasn’t sure if the moment had passed or if he should say something about the admission that Stiles had made. “Um—I didn’t know any of that. Laura never said anything to me.”

“Yeah, I know she didn’t. I knew she wouldn’t. Cora knew a long time ago, told me to forget about it. Said something about someone you dated in college being a total bitch.” Shrugging Stiles picked up the pizza and dropped the subject.

Derek felt his throat clench because of course, Stiles knew something. Thankfully not too much.

“Cora probably was the smart one in this whole thing.” The comment wasn’t meant to be mean but, Derek knew that he was always running from anything that resembled a relationship. “I mean it’s not that I’m not flattered but, it’s been three years. That’s a long time. Not to mention you of all people know that I’m not the friendliest of people.” **_(_** _yeah that’s right just try and sell yourself short there Derek_ ** _)_**

Stiles took a bite of his pizza and tried not to look disappointed. It seemed like Derek was giving him the blow off already. Or at least he was giving him the gracious thanks but no thanks. Really after today he kind of deserved it. “Unfortunately, you can’t say you aren’t friendly. We’ve been working together for months now and hate to say it but, you’re actually pretty nice. Once you get beyond that growly exterior and Cora—well, she said that right before our sophomore year of college, so I’m assuming RIGHT after all that stuff happened with your ex. I’m not so sure she thinks the same way now…”

Maybe she didn’t, maybe she did. Derek didn’t have time to think about that right now. All he could think about was the fact that at this very moment he was sitting here feeling very torn between sticking to his guns. (those being the stay single it’s safer guns) and completely crumbling under the temptation of Stiles sitting next to him. “Can we maybe not… talk about my family anymore? I’m sure there’s plenty of other things to talk about.”

Stiles paused for a moment. A faint smile was creeping across his face. “Sure we can drop that subject.” He’d been dying to ask him about his book for a couple of weeks now anyways so this was as good a time as any. “How’s the new book coming? Have you figured out how to fix the one that your publisher wanted you to work on?”

Of course, he wanted to talk about _**THAT**_. “It’s—stuck. I have been just staring at the screen for over a week. I have no ideas, inspiration or anything like that.” He was at a loss when it came to how to expand on that book concept anymore. “I’m going to have to give her a call and probably either ask her to consider something else or have her drop the idea altogether.”

“That sucks.” Shaking his head Stiles finished the last bite of his pizza and sat the plate on the table before leaning back against the couch. “Maybe if you had a solid outline for another book before you contacted her.” Throwing out suggestions for something he didn’t know anything about probably wasn’t a good idea.

“Believe me I’m working on it. I’ve been working on that for a few months now.” Ever since the two of them had been working together but, that remained unspoken.

“What’s it about?” He couldn’t help but ask. Stiles was always more than curious.

“Um… I don’t usually talk about that stuff until it’s done.” Derek dodged the question like it was second nature.

“Ah, so you’re that type of person huh? Tease— “

Derek snorted. “I’m a lot of things but, I don’t think you could call me a tease.” Since when did THIS turn into pseudo flirting? No, it was all the way flirting on Derek’s part, and he was almost certain it was on Stiles’ also.

“That so?”

As if on cue the moment Stiles leaned even the slightest bit forward Derek tensed. It was just a small amount, but the action was picked up on by the younger man. “Hey, I’m… I thought… Oh man, I feel like an idiot.” Starting to push himself from the couch Stiles suddenly wanted to be anywhere but Derek’s apartment.

“Wha—no no Stiles.” Derek reached out and grabbed his wrist. “You don’t have to feel like an idiot. You thought right… at least I think you did. I mean, Um—“ Wow this was just a royal mess. “This is why I said three years is a long time. I’m a mess.”

Glancing at his wrist, Stiles looked back at Derek and then down at his wrist again. “So, when you said you hadn’t dated in three years you mean, you haven’t done ANYTHING in three years?”

“When you put it like that it sounds so… lame”

“No, lame wasn’t what I was thinking.” Stiles sat back down on the couch and leaned in closing some of the space between Derek and himself. “I was thinking more along the lines of you need to get back into practice.” _**(** yeah because he was making himself sound like he had SO much experience **)**_

Practice sounded like something that was temporary, and Derek was never someone that was looking for that. But, right now he decided that was the last thing on his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are appreciated and give me life. 
> 
> Updates for the next four days will probably not be happening since I've got to work. 
> 
> I hope this will suffice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a date--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got this edited. This was a mess and it still may be. I'm always a disaster with anything remotely smutty. I did increase the rating because after this I don't remember, but I do know the rating was higher before.

_If at first, you don’t succeed try, try again._ At least that was the way Stiles thought he remembered it. Okay, so the first-night things didn’t go as planned. He tried to kiss Derek, and the guy tensed up like he was about to take a fist to the face. After Derek had explained things to Stiles, he understood BUT, that only made him _**WANT**_ more. When Stiles got something on the brain things just ended up a hot mess. That’s what any of his friends would attest too. Derek was now one of those people that would vouge to said hot messitude.

The two started spending more and more time together. **_(_** _if that was possible_ ** _)_** Derek would invite Stiles over for dinner usually on Saturday night since the bookstore didn’t open until later on Sundays. Stiles would typically accept his invitation if he didn't happen to be playing hard to get that night. There were times that Stiles would opt to hang out with Scott and Isaac instead. Derek hadn’t spoken much to Cora or Laura since the ill-fated dinner though he swore up and down he wasn’t angry with them. **_(_** _Isaac avoided coming into the bookstore like Derek had the plague_ ** _)_** Stiles thought the whole thing was childish.

“Hey Stiles, what are you doing on Saturday?” Derek was honestly trying to plan for something _‘nice’_ this week. Not just the usual dinner at his place kinda thing. He’d been slowly working his way up to asking the guy on a date even though he was all sorts of awkward about it.

Stiles was in the middle of painting something and had his back to Derek humming some song that Derek himself couldn’t quite place. “Saturday? I was thinking about going out with Scott and Isaac actually why?” This time it was the truth he wasn’t just saying it to make Derek jealous or upset. _**(** It wasn’t like he did that on occasion or anything **)**_

“Oh well, I was going to see if you wanted to go out to dinner but, maybe another time.” Shrugging Derek went back to the screen he’d been staring at for far too long.

‘Did he just ask me out?’ Stiles was asking the question over and over again without knowing the answer. He would never be able to answer it himself. “Derek, did you mean like a date date or just like us hanging out?”

Looking over the top of the computer Derek shrugged. “I was thinking a date but, maybe another time since you already have plans.”

“No, I can always reschedule with Scott and Isaac. What were you thinking about?” _**(** JACKPOT!! **)**_ Stiles wanted to jump for joy, to be honest. He never thought that Derek would ask him out. Not in a million years. “If you're serious.”

“Stop being ridiculous I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t serious. There’s this new place that I’ve wanted to go to but, it’s not the place you go to unless you’re with someone and since the only person I would even consider going out with is you… This isn’t sounding anywhere near as good as I wanted it too.” The entire speech seemed more like he was settling and less like he was asking Stiles out because it was what he wanted to do. Derek wasn't happy about the way the words were tumbling out of his mouth in a tangled mess.

If he didn’t know better Stiles would have been offended but, this was Derek. A wonderful mess of a human who could write words that could make people smile and weep, but when it came to talking the only thing he was typically good at was making most people furious. “I get it I get it. I’m your fallback…” Winking Stiles snorted. “Sounds good to me. Do I have to dress nice though?”

Derek hadn’t even considered the dress code. When he’d looked at the reviews for the restaurant, he hadn’t even glanced at that portion of the article. “You know what, I have no idea.” He stated with a shrug before opening up a browser and typing in the website.

Reading over it one more time he snorted. “Yeah, you do have to dress nice. Is that a problem?”

“No, not a problem just—I would have to leave a little early to get cleaned up. Working with paints all day kinda has this habit of leaving me a mess.” Stiles held his hands up in proof of his previous statement.

“Why don’t you take the day off that day. I’ll make the reservations and then you just take that day, and I’ll pick you up at your dad's house—“ If there was one thing that you could say about Derek it was that he was a hopeless romantic. Maybe he hated admitting it and in most cases acting like it, but he was.

Picking up the phone and heading into the back room Derek called the phone number on the page and made a reservation for two on Saturday for 7 pm. He knew that meant he would have to close early. However, it would be worth it. So totally worth it since this was the first _**REAL**_ date the two would be going on.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

Stiles was on his phone when Derek walked back into the front of the store. A customer was just opening the door, and Derek couldn’t help but smile at her. “Afternoon—“ He stated as the woman waved at him before walking towards the reference section of the books. Stiles glanced over his shoulder as he whispered into his phone and hung up. Derek didn’t think much of it just simply put his phone on the table behind the counter and walked over to where the woman was staring at the rows of books. “Was there something I could help you find?”

She looked at Derek for a moment and then back towards the books. “Oh um—I was looking for a book about Pompeii. I need it for a class I’m supposed to be teaching. Of course every bookstore I go to doesn’t have a single book. I'd have to special order it.”

Derek paused for a moment glancing at all the books on the shelves. “I have—one in the back if you give me a minute I can go back and grab it for you. I rotate stock so sometimes it takes me a minute to remember.” He was rambling as he headed back towards the back where the rest of the books were.

“That would be great thank you so much.”

Stiles wandered over to where the woman was standing. “He’s pretty good about that kind of stuff. Has so many books sometimes I wonder how the hell he keeps track of them all.” His eyes followed Derek, but quickly Stiles realized that the woman was someone that had been in the store before. “Wait—you’ve been here before. Didn’t I—you bought a couple of paintings and another book right?”

The woman glanced at Stiles and nodded. “Yeah and?”

Shrugging he nodded towards Derek. “Looks like he found your book.” Turning to walk away Stiles went back to his paintings. _‘Thank goodness.’_

Jennifer—that was her name. Stiles remembered once he'd gotten back to his painting. Not that he was _**ACTUALLY** _ painting much because concentrating with her in the building was difficult. It was hard to paint when the woman that was supposed to be buying a book was so shamelessly flirting with Derek. “Do you have books about _EVERYTHING_?”

“No that’s impossible,” Derek commented trying to ring the book up for her and not really paying attention to her advances. “I just happened to have a couple of books you were looking for when you needed them. Got lucky I guess.”

“I suppose I did.” The words dripped with so much honey that Stiles wanted to choke. Just as Stiles started to cough in his work area, the phone rang which drew his attention away, so Stiles answered it. Thankfully his father took up the rest of the time and made it next to impossible for him to hear the rest of the interaction between Derek and Jennifer.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

 _AND_ this couldn’t be over with soon enough—Derek was standing there thinking the entire time Jennifer was pouring on the sweet. God he just wanted her to leave. Had he even had a chance to tell Stiles about the reservation yet? No—No he hadn’t. Damn, don’t forget that.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

The question pulled Derek from his dazed train of thought. “Huh… Wha? No no, I don’t but, I’m not really. It’s not… I’m not really interested in that right now.” That was the friendliest way Derek could think of to let her down.

“What do you mean you’re not interested in that? Everyone’s looking for someone, right?” She smiled, and Derek figured that someone probably thought she was pretty. Hell, he thought she was pretty, but she just wasn’t what he wanted.

“Just that I’m… uh…” Derek shifted and ran a hand through his hair.

“OH—I’m sorry I shouldn’t be bothering you.” Glancing back at Stiles she pointed. “You and him?”

Derek furrowed his brow and didn’t comment. Ringing her book up Jennifer paid and waved as he walked out.

“Well, that was weird.” Derek cleared his throat and walked around the counter and moved towards Stiles.

“Yeah, you’re telling me. All she did was give me a big attitude because she wanted a Derek sandwich.”

Snorting at Stiles’ words Derek leaned against the wall. “I don’t think she’ll be coming in here for that anymore since when she walked out, she was under the impression that we were a thing and I didn’t have it in me to tell her that wasn’t EXACTLY the case.”

If he were just a little smug Stiles would never admit it to anyone but himself. “What do you mean you didn’t have it in you?”

“Well, I didn’t want to be hit on anymore, and I don’t exactly mind her thinking that way so---“

Just then Stiles’ phone rang again, and Derek was starting to think that something was going on since that was the third time his phone had rang in a matter of twenty minutes and usually it didn’t even ring that many times in one day.

“Oh yeah, Saturday night 7 pm. I’ll pick you up about 6:30 if that’s okay?” Derek paused waiting, but Stiles had already started to answer the phone, so he just turned and walked away.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

The rest of the week flew by. Derek was under the impression that it would go SLOW. Wasn’t that the way it always worked when you were looking forward to something? In Derek’s experience it was, but instead, it seemed as though he blinked and it was Saturday. The bookstore closed at 5 pm that day and would reopen on Monday at the regular time. Yeah, Derek figured that they’d be losing a day, but Sunday’s were typically slow, and so he didn’t figure much profit would be lost. Plus, if the two of them had a decent time then it'd be good not to have to rush out the next day.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

Stiles had taken all day Saturday off as Derek suggested and in a way he was glad. It gave him a chance to relax, not end up covered in paint. Plus, he spent the whole day doing what most people did during the day before dates. He got up and went to breakfast with Scott.

“Man I don’t even know how it happened,” Stiles started lifting the coffee mug to his lips.

Scott didn’t really want to pay attention, but he felt like after all the Allison talk he put Stiles through when the two started dating. “Seriously? You don’t know how? You mean to tell me that after the last couple months of being around the guy day in and day out you haven’t noticed how he looks at you?”

How does Derek look at him? No no Stiles never noticed anything like that. Derek just looked at him… Most of the time like he was annoyed. Every time that Stiles looked at Derek that was the impression that he got. Unless they were talking about something interesting or in one of their Trivial Pursuit games that they played on Saturday’s if it got really slow and boring.

“What the hell are you talking about and why didn’t anyone think to say anything about this to me sooner?” Stiles was baffled and honestly a little offended.

Scott just shrugged. “Derek looks at you like I used to look at Allison only a little more… broody.”

“That’s not even a thing Scott.”

“He makes it a thing.”

Okay, that was quite possibly true, but Stiles just never paid attention, and now he was a little miffed at himself.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to finish up breakfast since Scott had to go and meet up with Allison. The two had afternoon plans with her parents, and Scott didn’t look too happy about it but didn’t want to be late.

Stiles wasted a lot of the afternoon away trying to figure out how the hell this got by him. Yeah, sure they were around each other a lot. Honestly, he thought that part of it was because Laura was so insistent on throwing the two of them together so often but, the more he thought about it, the more a little spark of hope started to ignite. _**(** maybe it wasn’t JUST Laura **)**_

He flopped down on his bed. It wasn’t even one yet, and Stiles was already exhausted. When the phone rang and jerked him from his unintended nap, Stiles looked at the clock.

** [ 4:45 pm ] **

The time flashed in front of his face, and a wave of panic flooded him. “Hey” The word came out far gruffer than his usual tone.

“Don’t tell me you were sleeping, Stiles.”

The voice on the other end of the phone took a couple of minutes to register before it finally clicked into place. “Yes yes I was and Laura why are you calling me?” It wasn’t like the two talked **_THAT_** often outside of when they ran into each other at Derek’s store and on other rare occasions.

“I thought you were going out on a date with my little brother tonight.” Her tone sounded accusatory—like Stiles had already decided to stand Derek up.

“When you say it like that it just sounds creepy. Yeah, so I’m supposed to go out with Derek tonight, and the longer you keep me on the phone, the longer you keep me from being able to get ready.”

Snorting Laura wanted to reach through the phone and smack the guy upside the head. “Don’t make me regret this Stiles.”

Hanging up the phone without another word Stiles jumped in the shower. He had to rush if he wanted to be ready by 6:30 pm. His dad would be home soon, and that meant another third degree which would again impede his ability to prepare in a timely manner.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

Derek had always been a no fuss kind of person. He didn’t like spending a lot of time on himself. Sure he looked nice but, if he spent more than thirty minutes getting ready, then he knew he was in deep. **_(_** _that’s how he always looked at it anyways_ ** _)_**

After closing up and heading home, Derek jumped in the shower. There was something about going on a date smelling like old books that just didn’t appeal to him. Maybe to some, it wouldn’t have been bad but, Derek just vetoed that idea right away. His clothes weren’t anything _TOO FANCY_. Sure it was a button down shirt, dress slacks and yeah he had a tie, but that was because the restaurant asked that you wear a tie and jacket. _**(** the jacket was hanging in the car already **)**_

Laura always used to make sure that Derek's hair was a lot more sculpted than it was right now. After the way, things between them had been Derek figured that she didn't think it was her place to stop by and that was all right by him. The last thing Derek wanted was to be even more nervous because he was getting dating tips from his older sister. Derek merely ran his fingers through his hair with a little gel and hoped for the best. _**(** did it REALLY matter that much **)**_ Glancing in the mirror before he left with a huff Derek realized that _YES_ it did matter and attempted to fix the mess of hair atop his head. After another five wasted minutes, he was finally happy and grabbed his keys to leave.

  
Derek glanced at his phone momentarily and saw a text from Laura. Part of Derek didn’t want to read it. He didn’t want to be in a bad mood. Not tonight. But, this was his sister, and if something was wrong, he needed to know.

 **[msg: der]** heard about tonight. have fun. i’m happy for you.

Sighing he debated not texting back, but that would have been rude and since she was nice enough to send something Derek quickly typed out a message and hit send.

 **[msg: laur]** it’s a date. we’re not getting married.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

The drive to the Stilinski home was quick. Derek for some reason thought it should have taken longer to get there and as he pulled into the driveway, he realized that he was five minutes early. 

Turning off the engine, Derek pocketed the keys and walked to the door. The whole picking someone up at their parent’s house had Derek feeling like he was going to crawl out of his skin. **_(_** _he was too old to be THIS nervous about this stuff_ ** _)_**

...oooOOOOOOooo…

“Dad I swear if you so much as say anything even remotely shooty towards him I’m never going to forgive you and all you’ll eat for a month is salad.” Stiles was going to pull out the big guns if he had too. “I mean it. I’ll pack your lunch and hire spies. Don’t think I’m above it.”

John squinted in thought. “So, wait… You’re going out with someone, and I’m not even allowed to question the guy?”

“NO dad you’re not. It’s just one date, and unless something serious was going on, I think that I’m allowed to go out without him getting the third degree.”

“Fair enough but, Stiles… if anything happens.” John pointed at him, his face completely serious. If it hadn't been for the fact that Stiles wanted to get out of the house without scaring Derek away, he would have thought his father's actions were sweet.

“It’s a date dad. A DATE. I’m not going to sell my soul or my virtue. Which by the way I’m out of college. I waved goodbye to my virtue a LONG time ago.”

“That is something I do NOT need to know.” Cringing John walked out of the room and up the stairs.

Just as he left the room, there was a knock and Stiles who still needed to put his shoes on and get his jacket started to run aimlessly for a moment. “Dad—dad I need you to get the door. I have to go grab my jacket and shoes.”

“Right so now you need your dad.” John was muttering under his breath as he walked towards the front door and pulled it open. His eyes snapped up and met Derek’s a small smile crossing his lips as he squinted towards the sun. “Derek—Stiles didn’t tell me you were the one that was taking him out tonight.”

Derek suddenly felt like he was 16 again and god did he want to run back to his car and hide. “Oh—yeah I asked him a few days ago. We’ve just been spending a lot of time together and…”  
Stiles appeared behind his father and Derek’s rambling cut off.

“Say no more. You don’t have to explain a thing to me. You two have fun.” John moved away from the door to make room for Stiles to get through. As he walked away, John called over his shoulder... “Just don’t do anything stupid you two.”

“YEAH YEAH YEAH” Stiles waved and nodded before turning his gaze back to Derek. “Hey--- Hi, WOW you look. I don’t… I wasn’t expecting you to look so…” He motioned towards Derek and made a face that looked just slightly pained.

The older man had been speechless since Stiles had appeared. Not that he hadn’t expected him to look nice, but okay he could wear a suit a hell of a lot better than Derek expected. “So?” It was an honest question. One Derek really wasn’t sure of the answer too. “You look good… amazing really by the way.” Derek took a step away from the door and waited for Stiles. “We should probably get going. Don’t want to be late.”

Stiles nodded his head walking out the door and pulling it closed behind him. “Thanks by the way. You look terrific. Although you don’t have a jacket on.”

Derek pointed towards the car. “Didn’t want to wrinkle it while I was driving. Plus, they’re not that comfortable really.” Derek paused long enough to unlock and open the passenger door for Stiles. “By the way, tomorrow we’re off. So, you don’t have to worry about actually having too much fun tonight.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Derek realized how it sounded. Not how he meant them. “I—just meant that if you wanted to have a drink or two, you don’t have to worry about it. Since hangover isn’t a big deal.”

Stiles snorted as Derek walked around to the driver’s seat. He didn’t say a word though typically he would have given him so much shit for what he’d said. “So, you decided to leave the place closed tomorrow? That’s crazy, unprecedented isn’t it?”

Derek shrugged. The truth was it had happened a couple of times before. None of them were for ‘good’ reasons. This time though Derek just hoped that deciding to remain closed was a good thing. “No, I mean I’ve closed before, but this is a different reason.”

That wasn’t something that Stiles cared to think about right now. This was supposed to be a good night. A night that Stiles had looked forward to for days—almost all week and Derek had done the same so, conversation was going to be kept light.

Five minutes before 7:00 pm and the two pulled into the restaurant. “Derek” Stiles started not sure exactly what he wanted to say.

Once he found a parking spot, Derek turned the car off. “Hmm?” He’d be lying if he said that at that moment there wasn’t a small amount of anxiety that filled him.

“I—I’m sorry that things got messy with you and your sisters and I should have probably said something sooner about me— and what I was feeling or thinking or something.” Stiles was starting to flail.

Derek reached back and grabbed his jacket. “Hey, you don’t have to apologize. Laura knew how I would react to certain things. I’ve been this way for a long time. So, it’s not your fault. Now instead of doing this all night let’s go in and have dinner and see how that works huh?”

Stiles was relieved as he nodded his head because yes that was precisely what he wanted to do. “That sounds perfect.”

Already out of the car Derek made his way around to Stiles’ door opening it for him. He may not always be the cuddliest guy, but he knew how to treat people. That was one of the things that made him proud.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

Dinner went off without much of a hitch. Much because in the middle of a conversation about a party sophomore year in college Stiles was moving his arms about and knocked a glass of water over. It wasn’t full, and thankfully it didn’t land on anyone. The younger man just turned beet red and wanted to leave immediately. Derek talked him out of it by pointing out the fact that not even a minute later no one was paying attention anymore. After that, the rest of the conversation flowed as usual. ** _(_** _it was just like talking while they worked really_ ** _)_**

Afterward, Derek and Stiles both ditched the jackets and ties before getting back into the car. “I don’t know about you but, ties are some kind of torture device in my book.”

Stiles gave some sort of affirmative nod his eyes watching the road out the window. “So, are you… Are we…” Stiles paused for a moment and huffed. “Never mind.”

“No what? You can’t just start something like that and not finish.” Derek muttered though actually if Stiles wouldn’t have continued he wouldn’t have pushed the issue.

“I was just curious about this…” Stiles motioned between the two of them. “I mean friends--- OR.”

It was hard to say. A little too soon maybe? Derek didn’t want to say friends and then be wrong and same with it being more than that. “Well, I mean I’m not sure. I think that right now it’s a little bit too soon to know for sure. I think you’re amazing and that’s important right?”

“Yeah of course. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't reading too much into something or seeing something that wasn't really there.” Stiles smiled a little.

He wasn’t reading into anything. Nothing more than Derek was giving him to read. “No, you’re not reading into something that’s not there.”

Slowing the car as he approached the intersection Derek hesitated before glancing at Stiles again. “Did you want to come over for a bit or were you ready for me to take you home?”

As if Stiles needed to think about it. He already knew what he wanted. But, jumping right on the invite would probably seem a little too rushed. Hesitating for just a second longer Stiles shrugged. “Sure we can head back to your place. You said something about drinks anyways right?”

“I did” Derek answered flipping the turn signal on and heading towards his apartment.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

 _‘There’s nothing to be nervous about Stiles’_ He repeated the words over and over again. It wasn’t like this was a new place, a place he hadn’t been in at least six times before. **_(_** _dinner and movies had become a regular thing_ ** _)_** For some reason this seemed different, it felt different.

Even Derek was acting differently. Not once did he make Stiles get up to get his drink. Typically he was sent to the kitchen at least once or twice throughout the night for his beer. Tonight though Derek was up and in the kitchen each time without complaint.

“So, you wanted to watch this movie or did you let me just because you’re trying to be nice?” Stiles had chosen Incredible Hulk. _ **(** even he didn’t like the film, but this less argumentative Derek was fun **)**_

“No, I didn’t want to watch that. It’s horrible.” Derek answered truthfully to which Stiles snorted loudly.

Thankfully after that, the movie was over that the two fell into comfortable conversation. The couch was a lot more crowded than Derek expected. Stiles shoulder and his were in constant contact which was something Derek was overly aware. Every few minutes one of the two would make an excuse to brush their knuckles along the other. Usually, it worked out in regular conversation.

Stiles questioning why Derek hadn’t made up with his sister’s yet and Derek attempting to explain that things were a little more complicated than a simple I’m sorry. Of course, Stiles didn’t buy that and told him that things were never more complex than that. But, Derek wouldn’t budge.

Between the two of them, they polished off twelve beers. (a lot more than either of them should have) Stiles was laying on the couch legs propped on Derek’s thighs. He was rambling about a painting he had been slowly painting. Talking about how it was a lot deeper than people would ever realize and in the end, he’d probably never be able to sell it because no one would appreciate the meaning.

Idly running his fingers over Stiles’ calves, Derek nodded his head. “Like that one painting huh? You know the one of the street and street light?”

Stiles' eyes snapped to Derek without saying anything. He swallowed and just nodded.

...oooOOOOOOooo…

For a moment Derek thought maybe he’d said something wrong, but then he felt Stiles' foot start to move along his thigh. **_(_** _maybe he just wasn’t comfortable_ ** _)_** Derek hesitated for a moment. **_ALWAYS_** so much hesitation, second guessing. If it weren’t for the fact that at this VERY moment, he could see Stiles foot moving up his thigh, Derek would still be wondering if that was indeed what was going on.

Hands on legs, feet on legs—really it was boring. At least Derek thought so and judging by the look on Stiles' face he felt the same way. Both of them were still so fucking hesitant though. It wasn’t like this was just some friendship that they’d be screwing up. It was a business thing too. (there was a lot that could fall apart if things didn’t work out the way either of them hoped)

Stiles _FINALLY_ grew increasingly frustrated because Derek for all of his alpha male habits wasn’t one that would just take charge in situations like this. Stiles pushed himself up on the couch and leaned into Derek. “Are you just going to sit there frustrated all night?”

Probably was the right answer. Yes was the definite answer in truth but, now that Stiles was so damn close Derek could smell that he didn’t have that hint of paint thinner on his skin like he normally did. It was nice not to have that lingering around. “I don’t know what I was planning on doing honestly,” Derek answered before leaning in and capturing Stiles’ lips.

Derek had been dreaming about that damn moment and those god forsaken lips for well over a month now. They were what he thought they would be. Soft and he would have gladly given just about anything to taste them for the rest of his life. ** _(_** _yeah he was drunk, and it was starting to hit him how drunk right now_ ** _)_** That was a bold thought and one that Derek would never have imagined himself having. But, his hand wrapped around Stiles’ waist and pulled him closer and Derek’s mind was made up.

“If you—don’t want to do this we should probably stop.” It was a fair out. Not one that he hoped Stiles took but, one that he gave none the less.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Stiles mumbled not wanting to move too far away. “This is exactly what I want to be doing.”

A smile quirked at the edges of Derek’s lips before he twisted around to face Stiles, and allow the other man to move, so he was more comfortable. Legs splayed on the couch like that along with being half in Derek’s lap couldn’t have been the most comfortable position on the planet.

It didn’t take long—a little flailing which in truth Derek found slightly endearing which the elbows weren’t coming into contact with kidneys before Stiles was much more comfortable and Derek was MUCH more turned on. Who wouldn’t be when you had someone that looked like him practically in your lap?

The kissing became boring really quick. Stiles hands the first to leave Derek’s shoulders making their way down his shirt a button at a time. _**(** this whole dress up for a date thing wasn’t smart **)**_

Although some people Stiles was willing to bet Derek was one of them would beg to differ saying that part of the fun was anticipation. “So annoying” Stiles muttered the words against Derek’s lips as he finally got the last button undone.

Derek had to agree though he had already started working the button’s on Stiles’ shirt and was attempting not to get so frustrated he ripped them off just offering to buy him a new one.

“Frustrating not annoying” Derek corrected before covering his mouth back up with his.

The couch was getting crowded—too crowded for the things that Derek wanted. The things that Stiles had intentions of if the grinding of his hips against Derek’s meant anything.

Maneuvering Stiles, so he was laying on the couch was an option, but Derek knew that he would still just not be able to take what he wanted… needed. _**(** and Stiles wouldn’t enjoy himself which was Derek’s goal **)**_ Lifting the younger man, so he was standing Derek stood up and started to walked towards his bedroom. “Come with me.” He still held Stiles’ hand in his leading the way.

“So, you think I’m that kinda guy huh?” Stiles teased his fingers making small circles in the palm of Derek’s hand.

Derek simply glanced at him and shrugged. “No one said we HAD to do anything.”

That of course got a reaction out of Stiles which Derek knew it would. As he opened the door to his bedroom, Stiles nudged him in and pushed the door shut behind him. “No one said we weren’t either.”

A very unmanly whine caught in the back of Derek’s throat and yeah it had been WAY too long since anyone had been this far in his apartment. **_(_** _or had seen him with this little clothes on and he was merely shirtless_ ** _)_** When Stiles’ fingers traced along Derek’s stomach, he wanted to just roll over there. That though wouldn’t have been very attractive. (depending on how you look at it) Derek’s lips trailed kisses along Stiles' neck to collarbone.

When the back of the older man’s legs nudged against his bed, Derek slowly moved to lay back pulling Stiles with him. His deft fingers moving to the waist of Derek’s slacks without the other man even realizing, he was so enthralled with Stiles’ neck and the small noises he could pull from him just by kissing a gently biting.

The sudden relief of pressure that Derek had was a surprise. He paused for a moment glancing down then chuckled just a little. “Your damn hands” he muttered starting to pull on the button and zipper of the slacks that Stiles was wearing. (Note to self: Dress slacks suck) Derek never wanted to wear dress slacks again though he knew that he’d have to wear them a few more times.

Stiles’ hips lifted up so that his pants could slide down easier and he continued moving Derek’s down his legs. The two quickly decided it would be much easier to remove them the rest of the way themselves and finished stripping their clothes.

Taking a minute to look at Stiles and take him in. Derek had to admit that he looked even better than he imagined. _**(** Yes so what if he imagined this on one or two occasions **)**_  
Stiles started to feel a little self-conscious and moved to cover himself up. His cheeks blushing.

Reaching out and holding onto his hand Derek stopped him. “Don’t… you… you’re perfect. Don’t cover yourself up.” Running fingers along Stiles’ ribs Derek let his hands come to rest on his hips before pulling him closer. “You know… it’s been more than just a little while since…”

Now it was Derek’s turn to blush.

“I know Derek. You don’t have to say anything else.” Stiles wasn’t some seasoned veteran when it came to any of this but—he definitely could say that he figured he’d probably gotten laid more recently than Derek. “Just let me take care of things—“

If Derek had a quarter for every time, someone said that to him he’d be a lot richer than he was now. But, there was something about the way that Stiles said it that made Derek want to believe it. There was something that made him feel safe. That wasn’t something that Derek wasn’t used to, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time. Of course, regardless he still couldn’t let him know that he was content with that. “Let you take care of things huh?” He teased before his hands that were resting on Stiles’ hips pulled the man closer, and Derek’s lips crashed into his again.

Everything after that moved at a snail’s pace and light speed all at the same time. Derek’s mind was buzzing not to mention his body. Stiles lips quickly wandered from neck down to chest. The swallowed whine that Derek held back in his throat something that he couldn’t hide. Stiles looked up at him hovering over his chest. “You’re allowed to make noise. I’d rather you made noise.” **_(_** _Stiles went out of his way to stop talking_ ** _)_** Attention returning to Derek’s chest. It was perfect, so really it wasn’t hard to give it his undivided attention. At least until in Stiles travels his hand brushed against Derek’s erection and Derek whined his hips chasing the hand that started to quickly retreat.

Quickly bringing his hand back while himself moving against Derek. (which wasn’t going to do the other man quickly decided) Derek’s hand moved down from Stiles’ hips to his cock. It simply wouldn’t do to have the other man doing all the work. At least that’s what Derek told himself.

Everything was dry—too dry but, even at that, the friction was damn near perfection.

Growling Derek moved away from Stiles for a moment. A sound of dissent followed by an overly questioning look followed him. “Just--” Derek held up the bottle in order to answer the look before Stiles could even ask the question. The tube was one that he’d had for _FAR_ too long. “There,” He muttered pushing the drawer closed.

Breath catching at the back of his throat Derek’s eyes fell on Stiles’ stroking himself. How was one person so damn perfect? Moving back to him Derek’s lips quickly sought out Stiles’ yet again. Blindly he opened the bottle and squeezed a small amount of the fluid onto his hand before reaching out and taking over for Stiles. **_(_** _besides if anyone was going to take the younger man apart, Derek was the one that wanted too_ ** _)_**

The added slickness caused Stiles to shutter. His breath catching as he moaned Derek’s name against the other man’s lips. It was a heady feeling knowing that he was the one that was pulling those sounds from Stiles. A smile though small crossed Derek’s lips. The smile was quickly replaced with a groan when a hand was wrapped around his cock and started stroking him slower that should be allowed. It was almost torture. _**(** but in the best kind of way **)**_ “You’re trying to kill me.” Derek almost whined against Stiles' shoulder his forehead resting there in an attempt to regain some sort of control over himself.

Now that the two were on the same page it didn’t take long for them to move together. Derek’s breath grew ragged quickly. When their erections brushed against the other, the friction almost sent Derek over the edge. _**(** really he didn’t want to be THAT guy **)**_ His muscles started to coil, and the burning in the pit of his stomach began to build. “God damn” He muttered against Stiles.

Stiles who had been unusually silent despite everything that his body was screaming. “Derek—I’m gonna” His voice was wrecked. Utterly destroyed and Derek loved every moment of it. Those words alone were enough to push Derek over the edge he’d been teetering on for what felt like forever.

“Stiles” The name spoken through spasms. Derek’s orgasm leaving trails of semen across his abdomen and Stiles’ hand. The younger man quickly following suit chanting Derek’s name.

Of course, the aftermath—that was where Stiles always felt like things got awkward. No one ever quite knew what to say or what to do. Did you say thanks? Did you say anything? Was he supposed to just get up and get ready to leave? The two laid side by side for a moment not saying anything, the only sound filling the space their heavy breathing.

Then things started to cool and dry, and it was just gross—Derek slid out of his bed and made his way across to the bathroom attached to his bedroom. After a couple of minutes, he returned with a washcloth and cleaned the drying mess from Stiles hand and stomach.

Tossing the washcloth into a corner Derek flopped back onto his bed arms wrapping around the other man. “You’re staying right?” It may have sounded slightly needy but, he could easily cover it up as just not wanting to drive IF anything was said.

“Didn’t plan on leaving until we had breakfast.” Stiles teased before resting his head against Derek’s chest and closing his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a repost of an old story that I started writing then deleted because I lost the push for it. Now that I have finally found the desire to re-work it again I’m going to slowly start to re-post with the changes that I’ve made. 
> 
> Kudos and comments are so so much appreciated. 
> 
> Updates will come as I get things reworked.


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